EDITORIAL - IEC exacts heavy demand on security

The air is increasingly getting more rife with anticipation over the International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Cebu in January next year. The IEC will be following closely the annual feast of the Santo Niño and the Sinulog Festival. Taken together, all three religious and cultural events are expected to bring in a few million devotees and revelers.

That in mind, it becomes necessary to start asking real and hard questions about security, especially in light of recent events in Europe and Africa. Terror attacks are again on the rise. Not only that, they have taken on a new form, one that is much harder to detect and prevent. Gone perhaps are the more elaborately planned and big ticket surprises such as what the world will always remember as 9/11. Terrorism now includes smaller attacks by smaller units.

Big or small, grand or not, however, there is so much more to be scared about terrorism now than before and it is in this understand of the threat that all must be taken into account in the IEC preparation. There is a need to bring up this concern because from what has so far been heard from the authorities, it appears that all preparations seem to still focus on ordinary crimes like snatchings and picking of pockets.

Not that these petty crimes are to be ignored but the fact is, they are no longer the real concerns of those charged with securing such big events as are to happen in Cebu in January. Two things that need to keep in mind is that the January events are one, largely religious in nature, or more specifically Christian-based, and two, they involve large crowds, with massive foreign content in them.

It is to be expected that these things are already in the agenda of those tasked with securing these events. What is needed to be assured is that they are giving these things the highest consideration and not just part of one big whole. Security, with emphasis on terrorism, should be on top of the agenda and preoccupy 95 percent of the attention.

And it is not just the job of the police to secure the events, which is the impression given when stories emerge every now and then on security preparations. These are no longer easy times. These are times of great changes in life as most people know it. You no longer go to a January event with just the desire to participate or make good some devotional promise.

People who will be here at that time will have to consider the circumstances as they go to whatever event necessitates their presence. Such circumstances will require a great security component, to be assured not just by the police but by every security component that this country has. More importantly, it will require the vigilance and prudence components of everyone. Everyone will have to be on the lookout for their own personal safety.