News Briefs

Security up at ports, bus terminals

SECURITY was raised at the Cebu Bus Terminal for the coming Holy Week break.

Acting Cebu Gov. Agnes Magpale said security is paramount for the thousands of passengers heading to the province for the four-day holiday.  Magpale said CSBT operations manager Carmen Quijano designated more security guards at the site.

Quijano said she asked for more janitors and additional personnel to man the terminal to accommodate the influx of passengers. “After the P5 terminal fee was lifted, troublemakers are coming in and out… I cannot hold those people coming in and out for the reason that there is no more P5. We cannot prevent them from coming in,” she said.

Suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia opted for the removal of the P5 terminal fee last year. Magpale said she will have her own Visita Iglesia in the north with her family. The Coast Guard’s Cebu station said they will inspect vessels on the third week of this month and set up help desks for passengers going home to the provinces for the Lenten break. /Correspondents Carmel Loise Matus and Joy Cherry Quito

 Tracking devices for Mandaue garbage trucks

FOUR Mandaue City-owned garbage trucks were fitted with tracking devices to monitor the garbage collection in the city.

Ricardo Mendoza, head of Mandaue City’s Enforcement Section in Solid Waste Management said the garbage collectors should be monitored for compliance.

“We have noticed that there were smaller volumes of garbage disposed in the landfill,” City Administator James Abadia said.

Abadia said the garbage collectors must follow their schedule to ensure immediate service to the public.

Once their dry run succeeds, Abadia said they will install more tracker devices on trucks servicing the Centro cluster composed of barangays Alang-alang, Ibabao-Estancia, Guizo, and Mantuyong. Abadia showed to reporters a map monitoring the movement of garbage trucks on his cell phone.  “We don’t need to monitor but there are times that the garbage collection is irregular,” he said. /Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos

911-type emergency response system for Cebu City by June

AN integrated emergency response system similar to the 911 program in the US will kick off in Cebu City in June this year, the City Risk Reduction Management Council (CRRMC) said yesterday.

CRRMC chief Alvin Santillana said he’s only finalizing the terms and reference of the system.

“Unlike when Davao City started, the ingredients that we need are already in place. All we have to do is to integrate them under one roof,” he said.

With an initial funding of P35 million Santillana said the city could already spend on the expansion of the disaster office in barangay Mambaling worth P10 million to include a command center and another P10 million in equipment.

Another P15 million will buy closed circuit TV cameras to be installed on major thoroughfares.

Santillana said the city is also partnering with power and telecom firms and the business community in implementing its Rescue 911 program.

Emmanuel Jaldon, in-charge of the Central 911 in Davao City, said they started their own program on Sept. 2003 mainly for traffic monitoring and management.

Jaldon said former Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterto started their Central 911 program to address terrorism and calamities which hit their city in the past years.

Jaldon said their system can respond to 200 calls per day or 83,463 calls last year and can filter prank calls, false alarms and those calls made by multiple callers.

Santillana said Cebu City’s version of Rescue 911 is cheaper and easier to incorporate because the city already has trained emergency responders like personnel from the Emergency Response Unit Foundation (ERUF).

Traffic concerns will be forwarded to the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) while law enforcement concerns will be connected to the Cebu City Police Office.

Santillana said the 911 program can integrate the Mobile Alarm Response System (MARS) where text messages about ongoing fire or law enforcement concerns are referred to the concerned responders. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac