EDITORIAL - Overdoing security

There is said to be a plan for the police and the armed forces to beef up security at the city-owned South Road Properties. Why is this? Is there an impending attack by lawless elements that we do not know of ? And why the armed forces? Is a foreign invasion coming?

Last anyone heard or seen, and with the notable exception of two ongoing multi-million-peso big ticket  projects and a beautiful chapel to the first Visayan saint, the SRP is a mostly barren 300-plus hectares of landscape reclaimed from the sea.

The only incidents of note there that require the presence of law enforcers are the frequent vehicular accidents that seem to follow all speedways wherever they are built. Other than that, all is as quiet can be in these parts.

So why the call for added security? And with the armed forces at that? Whose brilliant idea is this? If the call is for the protection of the few investments going up there, then we fairly have a good idea of who made the call, because these people seem to consider the SRP as their own.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with providing security to the investments at SRP, provided the same level of security is provided elsewhere, especially in the areas that in fact have more and bigger investments. For it is untenable to make a special case out of the SRP even if some people seem to want to.

If securing all investments is the real motive here and not just the favored ones at SRP, it would do well for the overall security picture if we leave the armed forces out. Having the military, in whatever armed branch it may encarnate, secure businesses in peacetime is, well, not good for business.

Providing law and order is a police function and is best left that way. Seeing policemen around boosts confidence. In fact, the more police there are, the better. But to put soldiers on security detail can spook people and possibly drive away investments. The sight of soldiers always gives the impression of war.

So, if real security is behind the call as a mean to ensure law and order, then by all means throw in all the policemen we can spare — but not just at the SRP but everywhere where big investments need to be protected. As to the armed forces, let us not go overboard and look silly even to those we seek to protect.