ILOILO CITY– Preparations are underway for the peaceful and orderly staging of Ati-Atihan Festival in Aklan and Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City this January.
Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, regional director of Police Regional Office 6 (PRO 6), on Monday said that “full-blown” meetings were conducted for the two big events in the region.
The Ati-Atihan Festival is slated January 12-18 while the Dinagyang Festival will follow on January 21-28.
Binag said they are using the major security frameworks used during the region’s hosting of some meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) last year, the recently concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the MassKara Festival in Bacolod City last October.
He added that they are also using the “whole of government approach”, thus the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) are tapped to help in the preparations.
Binag mentioned that the local government unit of Kalibo in Aklan province has already issued an executive order to its various departments to support the security preparations for the Ati-Atihan festival.
Iloilo City Mayor Jose Espinosa III previously said that President Rodrigo Duterte is 90 percent sure to grace the Dinagyang Festival. Binag said that they are closely coordinating with the commander of the Presidential Security Group to prepare the necessary measures for the successful visit of the President in this city.
Binag said that they have already requested from Camp Crame for the signal jamming of cellular phones during the highlights of Dinagyang festival.
The meetings held Monday at the PRO-6 in Camp Delgado here gathered representatives of concerned agencies, provincial and city directors of the Aklan Police Provincial Office and Iloilo City Police Office, provincial and city disaster risk reduction management councils of the two host LGUs, among others. (PNA)
