By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

The city government expects to complete the installation of some P20 million worth of Closed Circuit Television cameras (CCTV) in selected areas, structures and road intersections here by the end of this month.

Work on this project – which will use at least 70 CCTV cameras will be effective at even a distance of 200 feet – started last April in several phases.

The project has been bidded out last January and awarded to the single bidder for the project,- a company based in Manila.

City Administrator Antonio Orendain Jr. said the installation of the cameras at city hall was completed last month.

The control center to be manned throughout the week by experts and trained policemen will be located at the City Tourism Office located at the Sunken Gardens between City Hall and the Old Public Market.

Aside from City Hall, Orendain said similar cameras were installed at Plaza Pilar near the Fort Pilar Shrine, Paseo del Mar, the local police station, the city jail and other unidentified vital offices and 11 street intersections.

The CCTVs to be installed at the police station and city jail will have their own control system in these two offices, independent of the central monitor near city hall.

CCTV cameras were already installed at the City Council Building along R. T. Lim Boulevard some two years ago. However, these cameras were dismantled from the building last January.

The defective P62-million City Council Building is undergoing repairs at a cost of over P20 million since January.

City Vice Mayor Cesar Ituralde said the cameras and accessories are being kept in a safe place to be reinstalled in the renovated City Council Building by the first quarter next year.

The surveillance camera system that the city government is putting up will include at least 13 road intersections stretching three kilometers east from City Hall at the Sta. Cruz Market and about the same distance west at Canelar Moret Baliwasan near the international airport and the highway towards the west coast of the City.

These intersections are the main entry roads to the city proper from the rural barangays and the provinces.

The city has been plagued by killings and petty robberies right in the city proper, mostly, by men riding tandem in motorcycles. Robbers also break into stores and jewelry shops right in the heart of the city.

The city administrator said these spy cameras should not make the police think that their work will be reduced because legwork will be the most effective means to deter crimes.

The cameras can only help identify criminals but cannot stop their criminal activities, he said.