Laoag City expands CCTV ordinance coverage

By Dominic B. dela Cruz (Staff Reporter)

Laoag City—As the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system has proven effective on both deterring and solving crimes, the Sangguniang Panlungsod here amended City Ordinance No. 2020-054.

The amendment expands the coverage of its application, requiring a minimum specification, number and location of CCTV installation, and regulating the examination, duplication and recording of CCTV footage along with penalties of violations.

Laoag councilor Jason Bader Perera, who authored the ordinance said the ordinance shall now include business establishments with a capital lower than PHP500,000, and on their own discretion may install a CCTV security system in accordance to their needs.

Bader added that this include all restaurants and carinderias, irrespective of the amount of their capitalization, that are serving alcoholic beverages to the public.

The amended ordinance also includes all privately owned educational institutions and dashboard cameras for all privately owned buses charging fares from the public that are operating and have a terminal within Laoag City.

Specifications of the CCTV should be at least indoor ultra-low light camera at least 2 mega pixels (MP); a resolution of at least 2MP, 1/1.8-inch progressive scan CMOS image sensor; outdoor ultra-low light camera at least 4 MP; water proofing of at least IP67;  with a resolution of at least 4MP 1/1.8" progressive scan CMOS image sensor

While specifications of the dash cam should be recording resolution of at least 1080 full HD; frame rate of at least 30 frames per second (FPS); built-in battery of any type; a night vision and diagonal field view of 136 degrees, horizontal field view of 115 degrees, vertical field view of 61 degrees; LCD screen of at least 2 inches; and recording media that have at least 128 gigabytes of memory card.

Perera said that the choice of brand of the CCTV equipment required to be used is at the option of the owner or administrator, provided it meets the minimum requirement of this ordinance.

For buses, the dash cams must be installed at least on its windshield or dashboard and another on the aisle capturing the general view of the inside of the bus.

Surveillance or CCTV cameras installed in business establishments or buses shall be made known to the general public through a written notice prominently displayed at the entrance of the establishment or the bus.

He said that the establishment owner has the right to limit the examination or copying of the footage requested if it violates the confidentiality of its business or the right to privacy of its clientele provided, its line of business involves confidentiality or privacy such as hotels, jewelry shops, banks, buses and other similar establishments. The term limitation as used in this ordinance refers to the non-inclusion of scenes that are not important to the objective of the requester as deemed by the requestee, such as blurring of the faces and deletion of those scenes not material in the investigation. Nonetheless, if the requester demands the compete desired CCTV footage but requestee gave only a limited footage shall be observed by the requestee and must save the same for a period of six months.

All the establishments under the newly amended CCTV ordinance are given within six months to comply from the date of effectivity of this ordinance with corresponding penalties.

Perera said that effectivity of this ordinance will be three months after the completion of posting and two consecutive weeks of publications on a newspaper of local circulation.

It was learned that CCTV ordinance was formed because of cases where armed robbery and other forms of criminal activities were committed against banks, other financial institutions as well as large commercial establishments in various places of the country leading to loss of lives and limbs as well as money and personal properties.

The immediate resolution of these criminal acts has been hard to attain due to lack of proof, evidences and references and identification of persons or group of persons who are involved in the commission of crimes.

Despite the hiring of security agencies to ensure security and safety in banks, financial institutions, pawn shops, and even large-scale commercial establishments, this is insufficient as to the determination of circumstances, identities of persons that are possibly involved in the commission of a crime and, not to discount the possibility of “an inside job” in the commission of a criminal act.