BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The probe on the slaying of an anti-narcotics cop has led to the discovery by a police officer that “most” of the closed-circuit television cameras here are “not functioning.”
Police Major Ramel Sarona, who leads the probe on the death of Staff Sgt. Joseph Nepumuceno, told DNX that while probers of Police Station 1 were gathering footage to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the killing of the City Drug Enforcement Unit member, they found out that not all the CCCTVs had recorded footage.
This is because “most” were not working.
Asked by DNX, however, how many cameras were not functioning, Sarona declined to give any figures, saying he cannot give any information about it.
Jose Maria Vargas, City Hall executive assistant who handles the emergency and disaster cluster, told DNX the city has about 120 CCTVs but these have yet to be “synchronized” by an expert who is still in Cebu City.
The city had allocated P9 million in 2019 for the installation of CCTVs.
Vargas said the system is not only composed of the actual cameras but includes the software and the entire system itself.
He added the system is not meant for security purposes like what the police thinks.
