EDITORIAL - Big trouble just to be secure

The giant Filipino-owned courier company LBC, which now boasts of a global reach, has racked up a bit of notoriety in Cebu following a series of robberies that victimized some of its branches. And while no investigation has conclusively determined why it has become a "favorite" target of holduppers, not a few fingers point to security lapses as one probable cause.

One of those fingers belong to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, who agreed with observations that many LBC branches do not have security guards after conducting his own inspections. So certain was Rama that these security lapses contributed to the holdups that he ordered the company to make up for the slack, threatening to padlock its branches that fail to comply.

That was the other week. When Rama conducted follow-up inspections last week, he found that the company has not put up the security requirements he ordered. So he promptly ordered the city legal office to order the closures. The city legal office has until today to determine if such an order has a legal leg to stand on. If it does, expect the closures to follow.

It is not clear, however, if legality is the only basis by which the city should proceed with the closures, or whether closing LBC branches that do not have security guards is the right thing to do. There is even the question of whether it is fair at all. And then there is the lack of any guarantee that complying with the order will ensure that LBC does not get to be robbed again.

Robberies happen not because there are no security guards around but inspite of them. A poor security guard manning a beauty products outlet became the latest statistic to this indisputable fact. Criminals will strike whenever and wherever the opportunity can work in their favor regardless of whether their targets are secure or not.

Besides, it is very difficult nowadays to determine who to trust. There have been many instances in which robberies are inside jobs, with the security guards who are supposed to protect the establishments they are guarding actually accomplices of the holduppers. Even the police can no longer be trusted in light of the very disappointing incidents involving rogue policemen in many parts of the country.

Now, this is not to say Rama is wrong, nor is this intended to discourage well-meaning efforts to help stem the tide of criminality. But nobody is even sure if LBC actually got Rama's order. It is not clear if Rama issued a written order to LBC management or whether he just said it through media. Just as unclear is whether at the time Rama conducted his inspections, LBC was already in the process of complying. Nobody has actually gotten the side of the company.