BAGUIO City, Philippines -- The surveillance camera installed in front of La Salle Greenhills might have been set up to monitor, not the school, but traffic in the area, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon Jr. said here Friday.
At the same time, Razon denied giving orders to install the surveillance camera, which supposedly hooded men in civilian clothes placed on a lamp post outside the school where Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., key Senate witness in the inquiry into the scandal-tainted national broadband network (NBN) deal, and his family are staying.
The installation of the camera was disclosed late Thursday afternoon by Lozada, who said his Senate security escorts had identified the men who set up the device at Gate 4 of the school as policemen.
Lozada worried that the camera was intended to monitor his visitors at the school, where former president Corazon Aquino will be sponsoring a mass for him on Sunday.
"There are no [orders to install a camera]. What I know is a camera is deployed at intersections, say EDSA. It is more strategic there because you can see [the corner of] Ortigas-Meralco [Avenues]," Razon said.
"What I know is this CCTV [closed-circuit television camera] has been installed at intersections and thoroughfares primarily to aid us in determining traffic conditions...it might be the reason [why it was set up at La Salle], not surveillance definitely," he added.
Razon said he has ordered Chief Superintendent Nilo Dela Cruz, Eastern Police District director, to investigate the camera installation.