Agency has untiltoday to prove guards are licensed

CEBU, Philippines - The Firearms, Explosives, Security Agencies and Guards Supervision Section-7 has given until today the agency of the three security guards detailed at the Fooda Savers Mart to submit the licenses of their guards after it was found out in the police investigation that they were unlicensed.

SPO3 Teodoro Ticar, investigator, said that the Golden Dragon Sun Security Agency was already ordered to submit today the licenses of Jessie Rey Bajenting, Neil Zoren Boquecosa, and Jeffrey Luna otherwise an administrative investigation will be conducted against the agency for hiring unlicensed guards.

If found out that the guards were indeed unlicensed, GDS Security Agency will be fined P50,000 while the guards will be fined P3,500, Ticar said.

Ticar added that the three guards will still be fined between P100 to P500 even if the agency will be able to produce their licenses because of their failure to bring it.

According to Ticar, security guards are supposed to bring with them their licenses in their place of assignment.

Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators in Central Visayas president Leopoldo Blanco admitted that some of their members are indeed hiring unlicensed guards.

Blanco however said that they do not have police power to discipline their members. According to Blanco, it is the police through Fesagss, which have supervision and regulatory powers over them.

He however said that the organization is looking at the possibility of conducting joint inspections with Fesagss to ensure that their members adhere to the organization’s own by-laws.

Blanco said that their organization requires each member-group to require guard applicants a license and training before hiring them.

The police found out that the guards assigned at the Fooda Savers Mart, when it was robbed by seven to eight armed men pretending to be policemen Monday dawn, could not present a license. They however claimed that their licenses are already being processed by their agency. – Fred P. Languido/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)