Mayor Michael Rama was having a bad day and worrying a lot about Cebu City’s image.
How else do you do you explain his threat to temporarily close LBC outlets in Cebu city for getting robbed so often?
The courier outlets deserve a “kalabasa” award for being a sitting duck for walk-in holduppers. Seven robberies with almost effortless ease this year in Cebu province.
It’s difficult to underrstand why the head office of the national courier and remittance company refuses to hire security guards. Their decision was conveyed by LBC branch managers to Cebu City Police Chief Noli Roman after the string of robberies..
The amounts stolen – P5,000 to P50,000 – are not enough to sink the corporation, but they are enough to invite more holduppers to knock off LBC outlets with impunity.
LBC has a lot to explain to the host city where it is losing a lot of goodwill. Doesn’t it care about the safety of its customers?
A predictable pattern has emerged in the series of LBC branch robberies. They took place in broad daylight, and were executed by two or more men posing as customers who had little trouble whipping out handguns and declaring a holdup.
When hoodlums struck the Punta Princessa branch n last week (their second heist there) the CCTV camera was malfunctioning. What does it cost to repair a camera? After three LBC holdups in Cebu City and four in Mandaue and Bogo this year, a big red flag is waving.
The mayor is irked by the headlines and the broadcast reports. He shouldn’t shoot the messenger though.
It’s not just the safety of customers at stake, it’s also Cebu City’s reputation, Rama said.
“If they’re going to think that by doing so (getting robbed and being lax about security), they are also promoting LBC, it’s unfair promotion at the expense of the city,” the mayor told reporters.
Promotion?
Perhaps the mayor confused “brand awareness” with notoriety. What business owner in his right mind wants to earn a reputation as a vulnerable target for robbers?
His threat to close LBC outlets is a cry of exasperation. Someone has to light a fire under the LBC top management but it’s an extreme measure to close a business. The mayor could simply refuse to renew their business permits for 2015.
Spending for internal security is part of the cost of doing business.
But Mayor Rama shouldn’t use LBC’s security lapses to gloss over the responsibility of the city police and his handpicked police chief Senior Supt. Noli Romana. It’s their job to find the perpetrators.
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