Camp Aguinaldo residents told to remain vigilant vs criminals

MANILA, Philippines – Residents in Camp Aguinaldo should remain vigilant with the security of their own homes despite the strict security measures of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) General Headquarters.

Colonel Nelson Chedrome, a resident on Capinpin Avenue, Camp Aguinaldo, reported to police that his Mazda (UPJ 652) was stolen last Saturday morning after returning to his house in the camp.

“While we rely on security measures of the camp … we have to maintain our security contingencies in our own houses. We shouldn’t be confident and leave our houses open,” AFP spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos told reporters in a briefing Monday.

Burgos, citing initial report from police, said there were two or three suspects who tore open the screen of the kitchen window of the house to get inside. They then proceeded to ransack the house, taking away two mobile phones and the keys to the Mazda and another vehicle, an Xtrail.

However, only the Mazda was taken by the car thieves believed to have evaded the camp’s checkpoints and gate sentries. They left around 5:30 a.m. when the random checkpoint measures in the camp ended.

“We have sentinels manning their posts. It’s still the responsibility of the residents to enforce security measures in their homes while [we] maintain security within the perimeter of the camp,” Burgos said.

He said in a separate interview that there have been 15 incidents of theft in the camp since January this year. Various items such as laptop computers, cash and wallets, cameras, etc., were the ones reported stolen from the houses of officers.

He said four instances of thefts involved minors from outside of the camp.

Burgos said the camp will maintain random checkpoint measures from 10 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. as he described the latest car theft incident as an isolated case.