Stupid security measure at the Dinagyang

 

Alfonso (standing behind a police officer) lost a pen to a security guard but he was not arrested for possession of a "deadly weapon". The police did not announce that bringing of pens was illegal inside the sports complex

Eduardo Alfonso, a retiree from British Columbia, Canada loses his pen morning of January 21, 2012. The thief is the security guard at the Iloilo Sports Complex (ISC), Iloilo City, guarding the entrance to check viewers of the Kasadyahan, first day of competition of the Dinagyang Festival. His wife nearly lost her pen to another security guard.

Noemi (not her real name), a grade five girl, misses her pair small scissors that same morning that she used in school. This time the suspected robber is a police officer, also at the entrance of the ISC. 

Cecille Alfonso, raises her right hand after successfully defended her pen from a thief in security guard uniform

The security guards at the ISC were ordered by the police to confiscate "deadly weapons" that included ballpens. Eduardo meekly surrendered his pen that he brought all the way from Canada. When he exited, the guard was no longer around. He thought the seizure was only for safe keeping. The guard issued him no receipt and he did not protest.

However, his wife Cecille, also a pensioner, refused to yield her pen without a receipt. She argued with the guard who refused her entry. She remonstrated before a police officer supervising the guards and told him point blank that she would surrender her pen but she would hold the police officer responsible if her pen was lost. "Look at me, am I a terrorist?" she asked. The officer allowed her entrance.

The school girl, about four feet tall, was ruing at the gate when I passed by her group. She was asking for her scissors back but the police officer who took it was no longer around. She looked for him around and failed. 

The funny things that happened to the Canadian pensioners and poor girl girl points to one solution: send back to grade one section one whoever was the smart aleck in the PNP who contrived of the racket of seizing ballpens and school scissors from kids and the elderly. 

If indeed they meant to detain "deadly weapons", they should issue receipts. They acted like idiots and thieves.