The City of Dumaguete, in its bid to improve its crime-prevention capability, has made plans to purchase and install closed-circuit TV cameras in strategic parts of the City.
The problem is that the proposal is a costly one. The whole setup for 19 cameras is P33 million.
This is a very huge price tag, especially that Dumaguete stands to lose P30 million in its Internal Revenue Allotment to the newly-created cities next year.
The Mayor and the City Council are frantic in looking for alternative sources of revenue that could patch the monetary shortfall. P30 million, after all, is P30 million. This amount could go a long way in the delivery of basic services to the public.
But all is not lost. The City could still have its CCTV system at no expense to the taxpayer. By now, many businesses have their own CCTV systems. Most CCTV systems have at least four cameras. The City might want to convince these businesses to position one or two cameras to the street so that it could record faces of passers-by and images of vehicles and, if possible, their plate numbers.
In Quezon City, having a CCTV system is made as a requirement in the issuance of a Mayor’s Permit. We may not necessarily make the same requirement in Dumaguete but we can have a census of businesses which have these systems so the City can make a security plan based on what infrastructure can be made from these cameras.
It may take several years to fully cover even Dumaguete’s commercial district with CCTV cameras. But we can start with whatever we can get with the cooperation of concerned citizens.