DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte said the opening of the Public Safety Command Center (PSCC) has added to the city's pride as one of the country's mega cities.
Noting that the PSCC is the dream of her father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, for the Dabawenyos, Mayor Duterte recognized that the center will highly improve the city's already renowned peace and order capability.
The PSCC serves as the nerve center for 17 CCTVs installed in 16 strategic areas in the city, covering entry and exit points and populated areas in the downtown areas, and the traffic signalization for the entire city.
The project implementer Abratique and Associates Inc. also noted that the multi-million facility is at par with those in New York and California in the United States, and the best in the country.
Costing at P704 million at its 3rd phase alone, Abratique said this funded the widening of roads, the facilities including 17 CCTVs, the installation, and the needed training of the Traffic Management Center, among others.
"Davao City has 65 intersections but since we're under budget constraint, what we prioritized were 16 strategic locations. The city is growing as we could there are construction everywhere. So, this is a good start for the city," Engineer Efren Abratique said in an interview.
"The traffic signal controller was developed by the State of California, State of New York. This became a standard in California as well as in New York and now for the US. This is the first thing in the Philippines, the CCTV (closed circuit television) system even with what I saw in Manila, this is the best," Abratique said.
"The traffic system is Quicknet Pro, the controller is also the first one in the Philippines. It's actually non-proprietary, it’s not owned by one company, that means the city is not a captured client and this is beneficial for the city. If the city wants to buy it from someone else they can do that. If they don't want me anymore so they can. This is a very good controller that has been tested in the US. We have installation in the Middle East, South America, and four installations in China," he added.
Law enforcement heads Davao City Police Office (DCPO) Director Rene Aspera and PSCC commander Ret. Col. Verner Monsanto, who also heads Central 911, said the new traffic and monitoring facility would be a great help to crime prevention and faster investigation.
Abratique said the CCTV cameras have a 35 times zooming capacity, which makes faces on the streets and even name tags of security guards of mall entrance visible.
Abratique also expressed his thanks to former mayor Rodrigo Duterte for trusting him to fulfill the task of creating the PSCC.
During the PSCC inauguration, PLDT-Smart public affairs head Ramon Isberto headed the turning over of its Weather Monitoring and Flood Alert System which they funded and was developed by the Ateneo de Davao University Engineering and Architecture Division. (JCZ)