Cebu City Councilor Philip Zafra | CDN Digital File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Philip Zafra will meet with representatives of the City’s Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) and the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office this week to check on the compliance of establishments with the “CCTV Ordinance of Cebu City.”
This was after the current administration of the Cebu City Police Office expressed plans to raise to the Cebu City Council the need to implement an ordinance that will require all establishments to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
In an interview, Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for administration of the CCPO, emphasized that proper installation of CCTVs in establishments, especially those that capture the roads, would be an effective crime deterrence.
READ: CCPO recommends creation of ordinance requiring establishments to install CCTVs
Zafra said that there is no need to create a new ordinance for this, as the City already has the ordinance passed in 2014 for the same purpose.
“Naa na tay ordinance requiring establishments to install CCTVs. Dugay dugay na ni. It is really long overdue,” he told CDN Digital in a phone interview.
“So, i-check nato kay apil sa gamonitor ana ang Business Permit and Licensing Office man. I suppose ni comply na ang kasagaran establishments ani. (But) kanang naa pa g’yoy mga establishments, especially katong gagmay (that don’t). Atong nakita like karon, wa nay mga security guard, ang mga gasoline station, even pawnshops, wa nay security guard,” he added.
Zafra also heads the Committee on Peace and Order.
The previous Cebu City Council passed on January 2014, City Ordinance no. 2381 or “An ordinance requiring business establishments and residential subdivisions and condominiums operating in Cebu City to install closed circuit TV cameras and providing penalties for violations thereof.”
It was amended in October 2018 through City Ordinance 2509 and further amended in November 2018 through City Ordinance 2515.
The updated version of this ordinance covers all banks, money changers, lending institutions, pawnshops, gas stations, internet shops, private schools, factories, coffee shops, fast food chains, and other business establishments with an annual gross sales of not less than P5 million, privately owned paid parking lots, shopping malls, residential subdivisions, condominiums, and private hospitals, among others.
These establishments are mandated to save surveillance feeds, video footage, files, or tapes, and surrender them to authorities when a crime takes place in their vicinity.
Under the ordinance, the BPLO is tasked to send duly authorized city employees to inspect the premises of all business establishments and residential subdivisions, and condominiums covered by the ordinance, by the mayor.
A specially designed sticker should be posted by the inspection team on establishments that have complied herewith.
Establishments that will violate this will be imposed a fine of P2,000 for the first offense; P3,000 for the second offense, and a fine of P5,000 and closure of said establishment or revocation of development permit of residential subdivision and condominium for the third offense. /rcg
ALSO READ:
Establishments urged to mount CCTV cameras facing outside to deter or capture crime