Cebu City: No security plan, no event approval

To prevent a mass shooting incident, the Cebu City government will now strictly require all events organizers to submit security and safety plans before approving any event.

While saying that the Las Vegas incident is unlikely to happen in Cebu City, Councilor David Tumulak said the city should not be complacent.

Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters, said the Cebu City Police Office and the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council will be evaluating the security and safety plans that organizers will submit.

“Cebu City is different from US because they only rely on CCTV cameras and some other countries,” he told reporters.

Last Monday evening, at least 59 were killed and another 527 were injured in a mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States.

Tumulak said the city government had been requiring the event organizers to submit their security and safety plans in 2014.

“We need to strictly implement it. We only allow concerts indoors in malls, convention centers, hotels. For outdoors, anha sa SRP (South Road Properties),” he said.

Another difference the Cebu City and US has is the imposition of firearm control law, he added.

Tumulak said government agencies and law enforcers should strictly monitor the illegal proliferation of firearms to avoid the same incident.

Sought for comment, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said anything can happen anywhere.

“Aside from the normal security precautions, I really don’t know what you can do. There are some things that can get out of control. You can put a gun ban but these people will not follow a gun ban,” he told reporters.

Osmeña said it is also difficult to trace if “mentally unbalanced” people will do the crime since it would not be predictable.

“It’s possible anywhere. Anywhere in the world, something like that is possible. Mas dako ang risgo diri sa mga terrorist sama sa nahitabo sa Davao. Ilang gibilin ang bomba sa isa ka lugar nagpundok mga tao,” he said.