The city government is exerting all effort to ensure the safety of the city’s yuletide decorations which will include dazzling light displays at City Hall, the Integrated Bus Terminal (IBT), and other parks and recreational areas.

City General Services Officer Engr. Rene Dela Cruz said that personnel from the General Services Office (GSO) will be deployed in all areas to monitor the displays and to ensure that all electrical and lighting components are secured and functioning properly.

“Todo se maga areas, we have assigned maga maintenance, maga electrician, para puede man monitor…tan monitor se every night for the whole duration [of the Christmas display],” Engr. Dela Cruz reported Wednesday, November 15, at the press briefing at City Hall.

The city government will also be coordinating with the security sector to implement crowd control measures as residents and visitors alike are expected to flock in droves to City Hall and its surrounding areas once the displays are unveiled on December 1, and to the IBT, which will switch on its decorations on December 8.

The city government’s Christmas display theme for this year is ‘Stars’.

Meanwhile, the city government through the City Tourism Office has scheduled a series of events for the Christmas Festival dubbed Festival Navidad to kick off Dec. 1 to 31.

These activities include the Christmas Opening Parade, Ceremonial Switch-on of Christmas lights, Hanging of the Greens and Mutya ng Pilipinas – Zamboanga – all to be held on December 1; Christmas Village Competition – Dec. 1-31; Carrera de Alegria (Down-hill Biking) on Dec. 3; and the Christmas Chorale competition – Dec. 2 – 15. (Jasmine Mohammadsali)