Parks office all set for holiday visitors
National Parks Development Committee Executive Director Juliet Villegas has met with authorities to thresh out security measures to secure visitors to Rizal Park during the holidays.
Villegas also invited Metro Manila citizens to “enjoy the holidays without overspending,” explaining that by heading to Rizal Park, they will get to join revelries for free.
The activities during the New Year event, described as one of the “biggest countdowns” in the country by NPDC Managing Director Kenneth Montegrande, are all in place. The activities include live performances of bands and fireworks displays and games for park visitors.
Cost efficient
“They can take their children to the park. It is most cost efficient as it’s free. And then they may want to share part of their budget for celebrating the holidays to ‘Sendong’ victims in Mindanao instead,” added Villegas.
Crowds are also expected to reach double the number of last year’s roughly 500,000 New Year Countdown revelers. Villegas said they also sought the help of the Manila Police in easing up traffic in the area.
“We monitored more people coming to our parks since the 16th and we have requested the police to intensify their security preparations and provide police officers to augment the park’s security force as well as volunteers,” Villegas said, adding that they were anticipating larger crowds since the Christmas and New Year celebrations this year fall on weekends.
500 policemen
Senior Superintendent Alex Gutierrez, chief of the Manila Police District, said that they would assign some 500 lawmen from their Civil Disturbance Management, Special Weapons and Tactics, and Criminal Investigation and Detection units for the New Year revelry.
He added that they would assign entrance and exit points wherein visitors will undergo security checks to ensure that no untoward incidents would occur amid the festivities.
And as thousands are expected to flock to the New Year event, Gutierrez said they would also maximize crowd control as well as traffic direction as the revelries last well into the morning of January 1.
Award-winning movies
Villegas said that visitors would also be treated to movies from the Metro Manila Film Fest, featuring past award-winning films from December 27 to 30.
She said that aside from police officers, ambulances and fire trucks would also be on standby near the park for immediate response in cases of emergency.
