DIGOS CITY?Merrymakers during Wednesday?s celebration of the Araw ng Digos weren?t used to the sound of sirens anymore until they heard it again from a police patrol car on Rizal Avenue.

Zorep Calidio, Southern Baptist Church pastor, said he thought the siren meant an emergency, probably an ambulance carrying a dying person or a fire engine rushing to a burning house.

There was no emergency, however. The police car was just escorting another car carrying Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, a guest of the city during its founding anniversary.

?I thought the police were responding to an emergency situation,? Calidio said.

Ely Isidro, a clothes vendor, said she wondered if President Aquino?s directive against the use of sirens, or wangwang, had been lifted.

?As far as I can recall, it was still there,? she said.

Another resident said city officials may have thought that being away from Manila, they can already defy the President?s order.

Senior Supt. Ronald dela Rosa, Davao del Sur police director, said he immediately conducted an investigation on the use of the siren in a nonemergency situation.

?The team leader explained that they were forced to use their siren so that tricycle drivers will give way,? he said.

The Inquirer learned that Mercado has to catch an afternoon flight from Davao, which is about an hour?s drive away.

But a man, who introduced himself only as Earl, said even President Aquino had to be late in his appointment for refusing to use a siren.

Earl said traffic policemen and traffic enforcers in the city could have simply asked tricycle drivers to give way.

?It doesn?t sound right even if they will say they had to use it because a VIP was on his way home. Even P-Noy, the highest official of the country, wouldn?t use his car?s siren,? Earl said. Inquirer Mindanao