Los Baños eyes ordinance on guards, cameras

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—This town’s municipal council is working on an ordinance that will require dormitory and apartment owners to install security cameras or hire security personnel, even as blue guards have been tagged in the rape and murder of two female students.

Vice Mayor Josephine Sumangil-Evangelista said the ordinance would be part of the town’s program to beef up the security provided to students residing in the vicinity of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus.

“Since not all dormitories, as some have fewer tenants, can afford to have their own security guard, we might at least require them to install security cameras,” Evangelista said.

Lester Ivan Rivera, 22, the arrested suspect in the rape and murder of UPLB student Given Grace Cebanico in October last year, was a bank security guard here.

In March, police arrested Alberto Sigue, 30, who was hired to guard a private lot, and Fredolin Presenta, 51, a security guard in a commercial establishment.  Sigue and Presenta were suspects in the rape and murder in February of Los Baños National High School student Rochel Geronda. The three were hired by different security agencies.

Evangelista raised concern that most of the security guards here were usually not from this town.

Laguna police director Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz assured that the police were coordinating with security agencies “to make sure the people they hire are without criminal backgrounds.”

Chief Inspector Conrado Masungsong, the town’s police chief, said they would be imposing stricter check on security guards working in the town.

Aside from the present requirements for security guards to present clearances from the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation, newly hired guards would also be asked to report to the local police station, he said.

“We will run some background check and we will also keep records of the security guards assigned here,” Masungsong added.

UPLB has a student population of around 12,000, but only 2,000 to 2,500 are accommodated in the university dormitories. The rest are renting apartments or dormitories outside the campus.