SUBDIVISION developers support a proposed ordinance that would require the installation of security cameras, in light of the death of 17-year-old college student Karen Kaye Montebon inside a gated community in Lapu-Lapu City.
Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) Cebu president Julie Castaños expressed full support for the proposal, which was sponsored by Cebu Provincial Board (PB) member Sun Shimura and co-sponsored by PB Member Thadeo Ouano nearly two weeks after Montebon’s death.
“I’m into it. Security and safety should always be the top of mind in every development,” Castaños said yesterday in a text message.
The PB approved on first reading Monday a proposed ordinance requiring all subdivisions to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all entrances, exits and “critical areas”.
Castaños, who is from Filinvest Land Inc., said new developments of the company have already been installed with CCTVs.
For their older subdivision projects, these were already turned over to homeowners association who are left to decide if they would install CCTVs in their respective communities.
While this may indicate a positive development in terms of security in Cebu’s gated communities, 8990 Holdings Inc general manager for construction and engineering Alexander Ace Sotto said the ordinance should cite the specifics of the CCTV installation, like the number of cameras required, its radius, distance, among other matters.
“It will help, but CCTV is not a deterrent to crime. It will not give 100 percent solution to crime,” Sotto raised. 8990 is the company behind Deca Homes, which has 13 projects in Cebu to date.
For Prohomes Development Inc., a subsidiary of Johndorf Ventures Corp, the developer of Corinthians subdivision where the crime took place, its sales and marketing manager Michele Bacungan said the company is willing to comply with the ordinance across its new projects, should this be approved.
Police relied on CCTV footage to link their principal suspect, Ruben Fernandez, 23, to the robbery and murder of Montebon. Before he could be questioned, however, Fernandez was shot dead in Getafe, Bohol last Tuesday. Police still have to identify who killed him and why they did it.
Camella Cebu general manager Myra Lynn Gilig said it is a standard across new Camella projects to install CCTVs, saying this is a new feature of the company’s developments.
For projects that have already been turned over, Gilig said this is up to the homeowners associations, but she noted that most of Camella’s projects have CCTV features installed already for security purposes.
Camella has 28 projects in Cebu.
PB Member Shimura recently said that a public hearing would be scheduled to strengthen the provisions and set penalties of the proposed ordinance.