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[av_heading heading=’NO CURFEW EXEMPTION Joe bans Dinagyang rehearsals beyond 10 p.m. ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Tuesday, November 7, 2017
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ILOILO City – No Dinagyang tribes participating in the festival’s ati and Kasadyahan competitions this January will be allowed to hold rehearsals on the city’s streets during curfew hours from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
“There will be no extension. Before the curfew ang tanan nga practice,” said Mayor Jose Espinosa III yesterday.
Dinagyang tribes are mostly school-based and their members are students covered by the curfew ordinance for minors.
Espinosa recently met with officials of various schools and tribes, the Iloilo City Police Office and the city government’s Task Force on Morals and Values Formation and discussed the curfew vis-a-vis the Dinagyang tribes’ rehearsals.
Tribe managers sought exemption from the curfew. They wanted the rehearsals to last late into the night but the city police insisted that these must not go beyond 10 p.m. – the start of the curfew.
According to Espinosa, none could give him assurance that the youngsters would go straight home after the late night rehearsals thus he told them, “You practice before sang curfew kag kon curfew na, puli na tanan.”
Superintendent Clarissa Zamora of the Division of Iloilo City Schools agreed, said Espinosa.
If the rehearsals go beyond 10 p.m. but the schools have the facilities to accommodate their students, the parents must be informed, he stressed.
“Schools must ensure the safety of their students,” said Espinosa.
Under Regulation Ordinance No. 2016- 230 which amended Regulation Ordinance No. 2011-676, minors (those below 18 years old) are prohibited from loitering beyond 10 p.m. in restaurants, nightclubs, motels, dancehalls, amusement places such as internet cafes, video arcades, karaoke bars, billiard halls, beach resorts and other similar establishments.
Also under the curfew ordinance, minors are prohibited from selling or vending whatever items (including food and beverages) even with their parents or guardians around, and its shall be unlawful for business establishments to admit minors within their premises during curfew hours.
The city government has been struggling to enforce the curfew. But Espinosa believed he may have found the solution in barangay tanods.
The mayor wanted village watchmen to take a vital role in the city government’s campaign to curb criminality, beginning with the strict implementation of the curfew for minors.
Just this Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, two minors figured in separate stabbing cases in Barangay Tanza, City Proper./PN
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