Brgy officials, organizer facing charges over Sto. Niño procession in Cebu

CEBU CITY — Criminal and administrative charges will be filed against a barangay chairman and 13 other persons over the controversial religious procession last Saturday night in Barangay Basak San Nicolas here.

Basak San Nicolas Chairman Norman Navarro will be among those who will be facing charges for failing to stop the public gathering which is prohibited while the city remains under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

The barangay is one of the 12 areas in the city considered as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hotspots.

In an interview last Sunday, Navarro said he permitted the event since he was told that only the image of Sto. Niño will be paraded around the barangay with no residents participating.

“I didn’t know that street dancing took place afterwards,” said Navarro.

Navarro said a certain Nicholas Tabar organized the event.

Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, regional director of Police Regional Office Central Visayas, said Navarro, other barangay officials and the event’s organizers violated Section 9 of the Republic Act 11332 or the Surveillance and Response to Notifiable Diseases, Epidemics, and Health Events of Public Health Concern.

The group also violated city ordinance that prohibited mass gatherings while the city was under ECQ, Ferro said.

“I can only surmise that the President was really [correct] on his comment that there are a lot of hard-headed people in Cebu,” said Ferro.

“It was frustrating that this happened because I had already talked twice to barangay captains that the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) should be strictly enforced,” added Ferro.

Ferro said he was disappointed that the incident took place several hours after Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, got a good impression of the city after an aerial inspection.

After the inspection, Eleazar assessed that the city looked like a “ghost town” because of the empty streets.

“He (Eleazar) was impressed with what he saw. I was thinking that the people reacted well with the ECQ and this thing happened,” said Ferro.

Ferro was on hand Monday when armored vehicles and heavily armed Special Action Force personnel patrolled the barangay to ensure that residents were not out on the streets.