PNP mulls tapping private guards to secure police camps

MANILA, Philippines—Despite concerns over the capabilities of private security guards who have failed to prevent mall robberies, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is looking to tap their services to secure police camps all over the country.

The PNP raised this possibility after concluding Monday a three-day “experiment” where security guards were posted at the two main gates of Camp Crame, the PNP national headquarters along Edsa in Quezon City.

“What we are actually doing is a dry run of our plan to turn over to them the nonpolice functions of policemen not only in Camp Crame, but in all PNP camps nationwide,” PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. told a news briefing.

He said the PNP Headquarters Support Service, headed by Senior Supt. Ramon Apolinario, had been tasked to study the possibility of deploying security guards to replace policemen in guarding the PNP headquarters.

Cerbo said Apolinario would submit the results of the dry run and make recommendations to the PNP leadership on the advantages and disadvantages of hiring civilian security personnel.

According to Cerbo, the plan was part of the PNP’s program to put more police personnel on the streets and increase police visibility to thwart street crimes.

At Camp Crame alone, he said, hundreds of policemen were currently assigned to man its gates and perform other nonpolice functions such as driving garbage trucks.

“We can hire civilians for these jobs so that we can deploy our personnel to do police work,” Cerbo said.

He, however, stressed that the security guards manning police camps would still be supervised by regular policemen.

Cerbo said 21 security guards, who worked in three shifts, were deployed at Camp Crame during the three-day experiment.

He said the PNP did not spend a centavo for the dry run since the Utopia Security Agency offered its services for free.

Told that the PNP may incur additional expenses if it should hire security guards, Cerbo said: “In the long run, the plan would actually be more economical. A Police Officer 1 receives P18,000 a month plus bonuses and other incentives. That’s more expensive than hiring security guards.”