ILIGAN CITY–Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia has issued an executive order for the reimposition of curfew hours for minors following reports of street disturbances involving underage youths.
Regencia earlier lifted the city-wide curfew for everyone to give way to the monthlong celebration of the annual fiesta celebration, dubbed as Diyandi Festival sa Iligan. Iliganons will celebrate patron St. Michael de Archangel fiesta on September 29.
Regencia said the recent cases of rioting among wayward youths compelled him to restore the curfew hours for individuals under 18 years old from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. of the following day.
Exemptions will be made for minors who go to school in the evening as long as they can present their school identification card (ID), he said.
“Minors who are accompanied by an adult, being seen on the streets beyond the curfew hours are also exempted,” Regencia’s order also said.
“In implementing the temporary curfew hours for minors, all law enforcers shall take necessary steps in preventing minors from wandering the streets, especially those who have formed themselves into groups, drinking alcoholic beverages and bringing hard and or deadly weapons of objects,” the order stated.
“The regular curfew hours for minors under City Ordinance No. 17-6613, that runs from 10:00 o’clock in the evening to 4:00 o’clock in the morning, shall resume after the Diyandi Festival Celebration which is on October 8, this year,” the EO stated.
The local government implemented curfew hours in the city shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte declared Martial Law in Mindanao following the Marawi siege last year.
Meanwhile, the Police Community Relations Unit (PRCU) of the Iligan Police Office cited that one of the reason why Regencia reimposed the curfew because of the reported riots caused by minors while having drinking sessions.
Chief Inspector Jovane Cabusas, PRCU head, also said that there were also vehicular incidents involved even curfew hours are implemented.
“These incidents involving young individuals, minors,” Cabusas said. (Divina Suson/PNA)
