Building exec mulls buying P1.8-M microfilm machine

AS A pre-cautionary measure, the Office of the Building Official (OBO) is eyeing to invest into various high-end technologies to securely store all important information and documents.

This after three separate attempts to burn the building office in the recent months.

Jaime Adalin, OBO chief, in an interview at his office Tuesday told Sun.Star Davao that one of the measures is purchasing a P1.8-million worth of microfilming machine.

Adalin said the microfilming machine looks like a photocopying machine that scans the documents and stores the scanned image in a storage device for safekeeping.

Once all the documents have been microfilmed, it will be kept for life.

"Mahalaga talaga na masimulan na natin ito lahat para wala na tayong dapat ika takot (It is very important that we should start with these measures so there's nothing else we should worry about)," Adalin said.

At present, OBO has already started its computerization program in a bid to store all of transaction information.

Adalin said he is convinced that whoever is behind the three arson attempts wanted to get rid of the important documents at the office.

Among the important documents at OBO are the history of building permit issuances for the past years. The record will also show how many of existing buildings have no valid building permits.

The first attempt to burn the OBO along City Hall Drive happened on April 22, this year while the second was on July 9. The last attempt was early morning Tuesday.

Adalin added that the suspects have leveled up on the last attempt because a cellphone has been set up as triggering device while in first two attempts, the suspects used matchsticks and mosquito coils (katol) to light up gasoline. (JOP)