ILOILO City – Criminals strike when there’s no one watching them. Security cameras can thus help deter crimes, according to Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, city police director. But not just some cameras. He is pushing for high-resolution closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Several business establishments indeed have security cameras, said Biñas, but these have low resolutions resulting to blurry video footages that are not helpful to the police.
The police director attended yesterday’s joint security meeting with Mayor Jose Espinosa III, officials of the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Philippine Coast Guard at city hall.
The meeting was held following two successive broad daylight shootings that left two men dead on July 13 and 14.
Regulation Ordinance No. 2011- 307 requires high-risk establishments such as banks to have CCTVs. But it does not specify the ideal resolution, said Biñas.
The ordinance also covers motels, drive-in hotels, pension houses, lodging houses, and seaports, among others.
It must be amended to specify the ideal CCTV resolution, said Biñas, so that business establishments would be compelled to follow the specification.
But not only establishments must have security cameras, he said. All barangays must also have CCTVs, he stressed.
“Kadamo sang mga krimen sa city nga solvable kay may mga CCTVs kita pero pagtan-aw naton, buron,” Biñas said.
The information technology office of the city government could help determine the ideal CCTV resolution, according to the police director.
Former Liga ng mga Barangay president Reyland Hervias said “almost 90 percent” of villages have CCTV cameras.
Iloilo City has 180 barangays.
“In some other cities, dali ma-solve ang krimen because may mga CCTVs in every corner. Kalabanan nga krimen himuon na, wala sang pulis,” Biñas.
On July 13, quail egg supplier Ranny Bibangco was shot to death by an unidentified armed man at the Iloilo Terminal Market. The next day, tricycle driver Ely Tipanan was also shot dead in Barangay Baldoza, La Paz district.
As of this writing, the city police was still struggling to identify the gunmen.
Biñas appealed for the public’s cooperation.
“Crime prevention is everybody’s responsibility, not just the police’s,” he stressed.
During a recent meeting with business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, Biñas said there were no organized crime groups in the city, much less those that target nightshift BPO employees.
“Isolated” was how Biñas described recent robbery incidents that left two call center agents shaken in the districts of Jaro and Mandurriao.
There were 52 BPO companies in this city, data from the Local Economic Investment and Promotions Office showed. These were mostly located at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao.
BPO companies agreed to submit work shift schedules of their employees to the city police.
The ICPO would come up with a deployment plan to synchronize with the work shifts.
The goal, according to Biñas, was to maximize police visibility during periods that night shift call center agents either leave or report to their offices./PN
