Cops to secure U-Belt through CCTV system

MANILA, Philippines–“Big Brother” will soon be coming to the U-Belt area.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on Wednesday said that the entire university belt area in Manila would be covered by a new system of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to secure students from pickpockets and other street criminals.

He added that the Philippine National Police would roll out its new anticriminality program within the next few weeks in time for the school opening.

“By the time the students return to school this June, the PNP [will have] set up CCTV cameras in the university belt,” Roxas told a news briefing at Camp Crame.

“If you’re a pickpocket or somebody who is involved in illegal activities, you should stop what you’re doing because you will be caught on CCTV [cameras],” he added.

According to Roxas, the project will not only help protect students outside schools, it will also secure the row of boarding houses nearby.

He said that the installation of the CCTV system was part of the PNP’s “deliberate, [programmed] and sustained” efforts to bring down criminality in the country’s capital.

“We are really focused on the needs of the public. This is not a disorganized approach. This is not ‘ningas-cogon,’” he told reporters.

According to Roxas, CCTV cameras donated by businessmen have already been installed at the corner of Edsa and Taft Avenue in Pasay City, which will serve as a pilot area for the project.

He said the place was ideal for testing the effectivity of the project since it was usually crowded with the presence of two stations of the Metro Rail Transit and the Light Railway Transit in the area.

Roxas added that the CCTV cameras would also cover the terminals of passenger buses and jeepneys plying the Cavite and Parañaque City routes.

“As the PNP says, smile because you will be on police cameras. I’m really excited and happy with this project,” he told reporters.