It's Fiesta Señor once again and the whole Cebu City is busy today with thousands of Catholic faithful and tourists trooping to churches to attend masses or hit the streets to witness activities devoted to the Holy Child.
For the devotees, there are masses at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño and at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral that are dedicated to Señor Sto. Niño. For those tourists, the street dancing and other Sinulog activities are highly anticipated.
However, as everyone goes out to celebrate, we should also be conscious about our security. Before venturing outside, one should not forget to be prepared for any untoward incident occurring in crowded areas.
Yes the authorities have been on their toes since the past days for the fiesta activities. In fact, aside from personnel from the Cebu City Police Office, hundreds of policemen from neighboring cities and provinces were also deployed to help augment the security around the city.
According to police leadership, the heightened alert will continue until late this month when Cebu hosts another major religious event of the year, the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) of the Catholic Church.
But this does not mean we can now already leave everything about our security today to the authorities. Everyone still has the foremost responsibility of protecting himself or herself from any crime incident.
Crimes do happen even in the most secure places because criminals, once they see an opportunity, would always do everything to pull off their trade. Therefore, it is very important for devotees and tourists to be vigilant as they move around from one activity to another.
Of course, everyone longs for the success of today's Sinulog and other fiesta activities. But that greatly depends upon the cooperation of every devotee and spectator. Given the intensified security, we do hope that our celebration of the annual Fiesta Senor will go down in history as one of the most peaceful.
Pit Senyor!