CH to beef up security in BPO hubs

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is eyeing to establish strong security presence in areas where business process outsourcing (BPO) firms are located by deploying more barangay tanods (village watchmen).

At a press conference Friday, the mayor said his office is creating a program to further strengthen the security in the city’s main business districts.

The program stemmed from the reported robbery incidents at the Cebu I.T. Park.

The mayor slammed the management for being “unresponsive."

"I really doubt their ability to cooperate...They said, ‘they will think about that,’ no enthusiasm," he said.

The new security program, which seen to address the robbery incidents in the city, will be piloted by Sitio Panagdait, Barangay Kasambagan, the home of Sykes, a BPO company.

The mayor opted to pilot the project at Sykes to show to the I.T. Park management how it works.

The city government will hire additional tanods to man the areas around Panagdait.

"We are going to start with this new concept, a safety program for those workers who withdraw their salaries late at night from ATM (Automated Teller Machine)," he said.

The city government will establish tanod outposts.

"(We will) build a booth and the tanods assigned will be uniformed so that those going into the machines will know that they're there," Osmeña said.

"This is a good opportunity for them to know people who work in Sykes and then this will create another barrier to make it difficult for robbery," he added.

The city though has yet to determine the number of tanods to be deployed.

"It's a new thing, we don't know how many. We will adjust as we go on. More (tanods) when we need more," Osmeña said.

Aside from tanods, the mayor is also open to the idea of hiring retired military officers and martial artists to help augment security.

Once successful, the program will be replicated in other areas, including in midtown Cebu City.

Moreover, the mayor said tanods are allowed to sell cellular loads at the outpost as their supplemental source of livelihood. The initiative is in partnership with Smart Communications.

Tanods are set to undergo training on this which will be facilitated by the Smart Communications Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT. — Odessa O.