Probe into Safe Philippines CCTV project sought
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima on Sunday is calling for an inquiry into the Safe Philippines Project, a planned CCTV surveillance system that will be put up in Metro Manila and in Davao City, saying the China-funded project may have risks to national security.
Prior to De Lima filing Senate Resolution 275, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto filed a similar resolution as early as January of 2019.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government awarded the project to China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation to build and install the system in November 2018.
The project seeks to install some 10,000 security cameras across public areas in Metro Manila and Davao. The system will also be equipped with advanced features such as intelligent video analytics, facial and plate recognition and video content search.
"Granting a country whose global reputation for its forceful espionage activities has raised worldwide concern, the opportunity to create a surveillance system in the Philippines should raise a red flag," De Lima said in a release.
Año: Government will handle surveillance data
Recto, in December 2018, raised the same concern, saying: "Don’t you think there is a security threat when China telecoms and Huawei will do surveillance system in Metro Manila?"
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in 2019 that the government would be handling all data collected by the equipment, which consumer electronics company Huawei has supplied under the multi-billion contract for the project.
The DILG also said in 2018 that the project was not primarily for surveilance and was simply an "integrated system to improve police response time as well as to deter and reduce crime."
Similar concerns were raised earlier in 2019 when former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio warned of the dangers that came with Chinese control of the country's power grid.
The number of China-funded projects has grown during the Duterte administration, which has sought closer ties with China and Russia and had announced a "divorce" with longtime ally and former colonizer the United States.
Project launched in Marikina
Despite calls for hearings, the Safe Philippines Project was formally launched in December in Marikina, which will be a pilot area for the system.
"Commercial contracts with companies whose international operations have put at risk the right of the people to privacy, entails careful scrutiny and utmost diligence in order to prevent abuses and violation of rights," De Lima said.
"The matter of improving the country’s technological capability in the enforcement of laws must be put on a scale to strike a balance between gaining technological competence and yielding access to information from our country and our citizens."
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