Blue guards need better pay, training

Thursday, September 8, 2011

SECURITY guards need more specialized training to be effective and efficient in their assignments.

Under the curricula designed by PNP Camp Crame, would-be security guards undergo 145 hours of training before they can become licensed blue guards. Their licenses are valid for three years.

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Sixty days before their licenses expire, security guards are supposed to undergo a 56-hour refresher training.

But the knowledge and skills that security guards get from the basic course and refresher training are not enough to make them highly efficient in fulfilling specific functions, like bank, airport and seaport security, said Rey Maniwang, head of the St. Martin Detective and Protective Training Institute in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

The PNP-designed basic course covers duties and responsibilities of security guards, traffic direction and control, crime scene preservation, rules of engagement, emergency preparedness, first aid, gender awareness and armed security training, among others.

Specialized

Given the limitations of the curricula, security agencies have to provide additional training to their personnel depending on where they are assigned, Maniwang said.

“Bank security is different from that used in malls. Guarding airports and seaports also needs more specialized training. For seaports and sea vessels, for instance, security personnel have to conform to the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

Maniwang also said there is a need to review Republic Act 5487 or the Private Security Agency Law to adapt to the present conditions.

“Robbers have become more sophisticated and they now have more powerful weapons,” he added.

The law provides that a security guard be issued a firearm “that is not higher than a 45 caliber,” or “when circumstances demand,” be entitled to use a riot gun or shotgun.

Automatic

Maniwang said bank security guards assigned to escort armored vans are better off with an automatic rifle, like an M16, instead of a single-shot shotgun.

“But only when he (security guard) is assigned to guard the premises of the van in an open area,” he added.

He explained that robbers in high-profile robberies are often armed with high-powered automatic weapons.

With such firearms, they are often quicker at taking a shot than a security guard who is armed with a single-shot shotgun (one must cock the shotgun before each shot so there’s a time interval between shots).

Apart from improving the equipment and training the security guards, Maniwang said there is a need to uplift their status and working conditions. Their wages and benefits should be in accordance with those mandated by law, he added.

He said guards should also be paid while undergoing training. “Most, if not all of them, cannot afford to undergo training because of the ‘no work, no pay’ policy,” he added.

Scholarship

The Technical Education and Skills Development (Tesda), under its Technical Vocational Education and Training program, offers scholarships for would-be security guards.

Tesda also has its own curricula, which is longer than the one designed by the PNP.

Tesda scholars, though, still have to obtain their licenses as security guards from the PNP.

Those who are not able to obtain a Tesda scholarship, though, will have to undergo refresher training with the assistance of their security agencies.

Usually, Maniwang said, the security agencies advance the training fee and deduct the sum from the security guard’s salary.

“We also need to change the way we treat security guards. In the company, the guard is often the one at the bottom. Usually, minamaliit sila (they are belittled),” he said, adding that guards are sometimes made to sweep floors, deliver parcels or carry things of company officials.

“That should not be the case because a guard’s primary function is to provide security. How can he fulfill his function and be on alert if he also has to sweep floors?” he asked.