We were cruising along F. Cabahug Street, Villa Aurora Subdivision, Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City, at about 10:45 AM, Tuesday. When we started to live here decades ago, very few vehicles entered the sparsely populated subdivision and traffic was very easy to manage. But in that Tuesday morning, as it has lately been, there were many cars in front of us as there were also many following our automobile. Times have so changed that the enormity of the traffic in our area had forced us to be driving with more care than we used to.
Out of the blue, a private security guard darted from the building housing the Kima Glass. He was waving his hand frantically and blowing his whistle irritatingly, at the same time. Because he was looking at the driver of our car, who happened to be my son Byron, I supposed it was my son that he was waving his hand and blowing his whistle at. For a fleeting moment, we were startled by the unusual event.
Then, an eerie thing began to unfold. The guard was apparently bent on committing suicide as indicated by his continuing to move towards the center of the busy road. To our horror, he stood right smack in the middle of our lane! His irresponsible action forced my son to hit the brakes and because, to our fortune, we were driving at a low and controlled speed, we easily slowed the car almost to a crawl. Unfortunately, the suddenness of the incident caught the other drivers by extreme surprise. We could only thank the Lord that no serious accident resulted from mindless action of the guard.
Sensing that we were not in any immediate danger, we decided to move forward. As we accelerated our run, Byron just honked at the security man who had some enough sense left in him as to step aside. It was then that we discovered what prompted him to attempt at “suicideâ€.
That guard wanted to impose a different, yet unknown, traffic rule. It was in his unconventional wisdom to do the unthinkable. “Iya pahunongon ang nagdagan nga mga awto kay iyang padaganon kadtong nag hunong nga awtoâ€. If it was not b_s, (pardon my word), I didn't know why he wanted all moving vehicles to stop in order to make a car that was in a stop position to drive away. Crazy.
I write about that incident because, candidly, it was the second time in a span of only a week. In the first occasion, also near my residence at F. Cabahug St., I was so seized by the suddenness of the event that I could not control myself. Against my nature, I reprimanded a guard for his similar act of recklessness.
Private security guards, after being subjected to and undergoing regular serious trainings in the correct concepts of peace and order, may become good assets in keeping our peace. With the operation of security guard service agencies being under the control of the government, coordination, by way of harnessing them to work side by side with policemen, is not a problem. If we consider that thousands of them are employed by private firms, we can conclude that they increase the firepower of police authorities in responding to a criminal activity. They even make up for the absence of policemen in crime scenes. So they serve in both pro-active and reactive manners.
Security guards however, cannot arrogate unto themselves legitimate police functions. For instance, they cannot, on their own whim, just act as instant traffic officers. What happened last Tuesday morning illustrates this point. That guard wanted someone, not remotely his bosses, to drive quickly out of their parking bays. To achieve that end, he signaled all moving vehicles to stop so that the vehicle that was parked at their parking area could move out! If the two incidents that I have written here took place at the same time, hell would have broken loose considering that the two establishments involved are less than fifty meters away from each other.
In the interest of public order, the PNP needs to study these two cases. Let it come up with policies to ensure that guards are effective extension of police agencies rather than mindless originators of public chaos.