Crime rates decline in Lingayen thanks to CCTV – Mayor

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN – This capital town mayor said crime rates decline here because of the 44 closed-circuit television (CCTV) she installed all over the Poblacion area.

SECURITY CAMERAS. The main monitor of the 44 security cameras located inside the office of Lingayen Mayor Josefina “Iday” Castaneda. She said the cameras that are installed in various places of the Poblacion reduced the number of criminalities committed in the capital town and reduced the traffic congestion in the main thoroughfares. Photo Credit: Mortz C. Ortigoza

Mayor Josefina “Iday” Castaneda cited that aside from the reduced number of criminality because of the deterrence brought by the 44 cameras all over the poblacion areas, the CCTV's reduced the traffic congestion because traffic enforcers could easily be ordered to immediately approach the area where there is a traffic snarl.

“In my first term in 2013 I started with 14 CCTVs, now we have 44 cameras all over the different places of the poblacion areas to monitor criminals,” she said.

The mayor said that in case there was a hold-up, say at ten in the evening, the police can just go to the office of the mayor by studying the replay of the recorded robbery on that time and the place as captured by the camera.

“Sa barangay meron din sila. Maglagay din sila. Sarili na nila ang gastos,” she said by referring to the internal revenue allotment from the national government of the 32 villages here.

Castaneda said she needs a bigger monitor since her present monitor was too small for the 44 miniature monitors inside the mother monitor.

“We need a bigger monitor. Now siksik na kasi ang mga monitors,” she amusedly said.

Aside from this capital town, other local government units in Pangasinan that invest to fight criminality and traffic congestion by having CCTVs are the cities of Dagupan and Urdaneta and Mangaldan town.

Meanwhile, Castaneda said that for this year her constituents would be a beneficiary of a seven million pesos farm-to-market road from the Bottoms-Up-Budgeting (BUB) of the Department of Agriculture.

 BUB is a government’s reform program that institutionalized the people’s participation in the budget process, under the BUB program, the grassroot communities play a role in determining what projects the national government will do.

Examples of these programs were motorized bancas given to local government units, boxes of  Global Positioning System or GPS-powered Fish Finders and brand new fishing nets that were recently given to the fisherfolk of Dagupan City.

She cited this town was a beneficiary of the ten fiber glass made motorized fishing boat and fishing equipment distributed recently at Sual, Pangasinan by DA Secretary Emmanuel Pinol.