Dumaguete City to acquire CCTVs before year ends

DUMAGUETE CITY - If everything goes smoothly as planned, Dumaguete City may finally have its own closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera system before the year ends.

This was after the City Council last week unanimously voted to grant Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo the authority to procure a CCTV camera system, which will be leased by the city government from a successful bidder for eight years with a budget of P8.75 million per year.

Councilor Joe Kenneth Arbas, a senior member of the council’s peace and order committee, said that once approved, the provider will install up to 350 CCTV cameras all over the city. The bulk of these cameras, he said, will be installed in the downtown area.

Pedestrians cross the downtown area in Dumaguete City, where the bulk of CCTV cameras are expected to be installed before the year ends. Raffy Cabristante

There are so far four companies that have showed interest in the project, Arbas added, among them telecommunications giant PLDT. However, the city government is still welcoming proposals from other interested companies.

The procurement was approved after two previous biddings held last January and May failed because there were no bidders.

The budget for the CCTV system was approved last December, with the leasing rate set at P7 million per year. To increase the rate so it becomes more attractive to bidders, the councilor said Remollo also added P1.75 million from his intelligence funds.

He noted that the council first debated whether to buy or lease a CCTV system. It later opted to lease as it is more “practical,” because the prospective provider would have the obligation to maintain and update the cameras, something the city government would be unable to do if it chose to buy.

Leasing will also give the city government the option to look for another supplier that can provide far better services once the first eight-year period ends. It is also the more affordable option, Arbas said, as the government can allocate a bigger part of its budget to other projects such as the renovation of roads and bridges in the city.

“Buying a CCTV system at P70 million would mean having to sacrifice other projects. And the mayor doesn’t want to borrow money from the government because he might leave obligations to the next generations,” he said.

Once the CCTV system is put in place, a command center at the City Hall is also set to be established, pursuant to the proposed ordinances authored by Councilors Manuel Arbon, who proposed an information technology (IT) center, and Alan Gel Cordova, who proposed a public safety center.

The City Council is also exploring the possibility of installing traffic lights in some parts of Dumaguete, Arbas said. This can also be a service that can be offered by companies interested to take on the CCTV project. The prospect, however, may take some more time to realize.

For his part, Remollo said he hopes a company may finally be tapped for the CCTV project within this month so that installation, which may take up to six months, can already start.

He added that the installation of a traffic light system in the city may come “almost simultaneously” with the CCTV project because both systems use the same fiber optics technology. —KG, GMA News