If the four burglaries in the towns of Sogod, Compostela, Carmen and Pinamungajan were a “slap on the face” of the police as Senior Supt. Noel Gillamac, Cebu provincial chief, described it, then the Toledo City Hall burglary last Sunday where part of a P6 million payroll intended for teachers was stolen, could be other forms of humiliation.
It could be A) a poke in the eye B) a punch in the gut C) a roundhouse kick to the face or D) all of the above for both the police and local treasurers tasked to guard public funds.
Either way it’s a painful reminder about the porous security in seats of government in Cebu’s not- so-sleepy countryside, where drugs and loose firearms are just as much a problem as in the city.
It’s especially painful for the new Toledo City police chief Senior Supt. Ricky Delilis, who barely warmed his seat when the robbery took place.
The steel vault inside a filing cabinet was opened and all but emptied except for P90,000 overlooked in a tray of documents.
Whoever got in took advantage of the casual security arrangements in City Hall.
The key to the office was routinely passed from one hand to the next, with the understanding that whoever was last to leave would lock it up, according to police.
With “trusting” relations like that, who needs CCTV cameras?
Toledo City Treasurer Ophelia Oliva, lucky woman, gets the maximum benefit of the doubt from her boss, Mayor John Osmeña.
Her staff kept the bulk of a P6 million payroll in the office vault over the weekend, violating a policy to have cash deposited in the bank. She said she would revamp the office pronto for such disobedience.
With a loss of that magnitude, can the treasurer escape a dose of command responsibility? How could the non-deposit of such large amounts of cash have gone undetected?
All this talk about hiring blue guards and purchasing security cameras is music to the ears of private security agencies and the booming business of CCTV cameras.
But if internal security – and common sense – is not maximized in a local government, no amount of technology will guard it from the mischief of insiders.
If CCTVs were the gold standard of security, just remember the pilferage of Gawad Kalinga relief goods in the Cebu International Convention Center. Cameras recorded the pullout of boxes and bags of clothes but Capitol officials still don’t know who did the looting.
Provincial Board (PB) Member Gigi Sanchez Zaballero posed the right question when she asked why P6 million in cash – or what was left of it after the release of allowances of some teachers – was kept in the vault over the weekend, an irresisitible temptation for those who aren’t intimidated by the presence of a single watchman on duty.