ICPO favors 2 a.m. liquor ban but…

By: Jennifer P. Rendon 

IF THE Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) will have its way, it wants the 2 a.m. liquor ban on the metropolis to stay.

Colonel Martin Defensor, Jr., Iloilo City police chief, said the liquor ban had a positive impact on the city’s peace and order situation.

“On the police side, it has really worked in our favor. Criminal incidents during early morning lessened,” he said.

But Defensor acknowledged that while it has benefited them, it might have hurt the business sector.

The ban is contained in Executive Order No. 146, Series of 2017 or “An Executive Order Directing the Mandatory Closure at 2:00 O’clock in the Morning of All Bars, Night Clubs, Disco Bars, Resto Bars and Other Similar Establishments Providing for Exemptions and Sanctions Thereof, and for other purposes.”

Then Mayor Jose Espinosa III issued the executive order citing “numerous reports of the proliferation of incidents due to intoxication or under the influence of liquor.”

The EO also cited the “rising number of bars, night clubs, disco bars, restaurants, resto bars and other similar establishments which are engaged in unregulated dispensation if liquor and other intoxicating drinks even during wee hours of the morning and even at daytime resulting in the improper and harmful conduct of behavior of the consumers.”

But days before he assumed post, Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said he plans to repeal the 2 a.m. liquor ban on bar, nightclubs and other establishments in Iloilo City.

Treñas said he will first ask the ICPO if they have the necessary personnel to maintain the peace and order in Iloilo City.

“If Mayor Treñas would repeal the 2 a.m. ban, we would make necessary adjustment with our personnel deployment,” Defensor said.

He added that it’s the police job to maintain peace and order 24/7.

While it could affect their deployment plan, Defensor assured the public they would continue to work relentlessly.