Recto urges Senate to review P20B surveillance and monitoring project with China company

Senator Ralph Recto has urged the Senate to review the P20-billion surveillance and monitoring project, which aims to install 12,000 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Metro Manila and Davao City, before providing funds for its implementation.

Recto asked the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to provide the Senate with documents pertaining to the project, dubbed as “Safe Philippines,” that would be implemented together with China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation, an affiliate of China Telecom.

He said the contract was signed by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año and the chairman of China Telecom, a partner of Mislatel which could be the country's third telco.

He raised alarm over the project as, according to his sources, the equipment to be used would be provided by Huawei, which appears to be banned in many countries due to  hacking allegations. 

“Would there not be a security threat if we allow China Telecom to be part of a surveillance system of the DILG and the PNP?” he added during the budget deliberations.

“Here we are, discussing the possibility of giving China Telecom third telcom status.  They will be part of the Safe Philippines with Huawei.  They are blacklisted in many countries at least as supplier,” he further said.

Recto said if the Senate would approve the budget and no one questions it, the senators are, in effect, appropriating money for the project. 

“Now, my problem is this, if we are already appropriating an amount of money here once we pass this budget, and that is part of the support to foreign-assisted projects,  we, in effect, are saying in Congress that we agree with the project,” he said.

Senator Loren Legarda, finance committee chair, agreed with Recto’s request.

“We are requesting NEDA to supply all senators with everything pertaining to this project,” she said.

“Anyway, bicameral conference will take until next year, perhaps, so we can easily strike it out if the gentleman would not agree,” she added.

In a press statement, DILG said the Safe Philippines emergency response and monitoring system is not primarily for surveillance but an integrated system to improve police response time as well as to deter and reduce crime.

Año said the project will level up the 911 emergency system of the DILG-PNP and will be used to improve public safety, evidence collection in the event of criminal activities, incident prevention measures for disaster-related mitigation and response, and police and fire emergency response in addressing traffic and criminal incidents.

"A similar system is in place in many cities in the world especially in large metropolitan cities like Metro Manila. It's about time we have a similar system in our country," he said.

He expressed confidence that under the project, crime incidents would be reduced by 15 percent and response time would be improved by 25 percent.

Año clarified that while the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. was one of the three bidders of the project, it did not win the bid.

“Huawei and CMEC were disqualified from the bid because they did not meet the standards and specifications of the Special Bids and Awards Committee. Only CITCC met the requirements,” he said.

On November 19, 2018, the DILG signed the $396.8 million contract with the winning bidder the CITCC for the construction and installation of monitoring systems in Metro Manila and Davao City.

Under phase 1 of the Safe Philippines Project, DILG will provide 18 local government units in Metro Manila and Davao City with integrated operations and command centers and a remote back-up data center.

All cities in Metro Manila and Davao City will have its own command center located in the Philippine National Police (PNP) city headquarters. Meanwhile, a national command center will be constructed in Metro Manila, while its remote back-up data center will be placed in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga.

Metro Manila was identified as the pilot city for the project due to its dense population. Davao City, on the other hand, was chosen to complement the monitoring system already in place in the city.

Año assured the public that DILG will take necessary measures such as installing protocols and standard operating procedures to protect the data stored in the CCTV system.

"The DILG will install the the necessary fire walls to protect the system from hackers and other threats. This will be installed by the DILG and funded by our government," he said.

“The public also doesn’t have to worry about data breaches in the project as there will be no storage of classified data or information inimical to national security in the CCTV system,” he added.

He said the project will simply allow the police to respond to criminal activities, address disasters and traffic issues, and apprehend suspects in the event of threats to public order, safety and security.

It was DILG that prepared the feasibility study of the National Safe Cities Project which was submitted to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in December 2016 for approval.

The name was changed to the Safe Philippines Project together with the submission of the final feasibility study to NEDA which was approved in January 2018. — BAP, GMA News