Airport Brawl (A Premise Security Issue)

An eye opener for the NAIA Official who earlier commented on national television that "guards are not Robocops"! But then again guards involved in the incident did simply fail to exert the required level of force to address such progressing situation as observed on the actual footages.

It should be emphasized that guards are supposed to be trained to deal with common security incident and thrives to avert it from becoming a crisis situation. Moreso with Airport Security who expectedly receives more training to that of an average security guard.

The glaring security lapse on this event shows clear on the actions of the man in pink shirt who repeatedly gave the man on the ground unguarded blows on the face while security pers in blue stands idle behind the scene comprehending or confused as to what actions he should be taking. It couldn't be a point of argument whether guards responded or not as they did (on the later part), it is the absence of a required degree and sequence of actions that failed to level off in order to neutralize or prevent the incident from escalating.

If and when a security force decides to interfere with a looming security situation, the ultimate aim is to neutralize and/or prevent it from sudden shift to a potential crisis scenario. Employing the right plan and equally the right force commensurate to a confronting threat is a crucial need to resolve an impending incident. Inherent to this decision are liability consequences if one should fail in the process.

This incident may be just another brawl involving known figures, but security assessments must be drawn out and re-evaluate security response systems in order to raise an issue on how prepared our airport security groups in dealing with a much larger crisis scenario right inside our airport premises.

There lies more on airport guards being "robo-cops" as plain, stupid excuse and can be gleaned as ungentlemanly statement for a security failure! At the end of the day, that big question goes back to the Highest Ranking Officer in the premise. Specifically, how the over-all security operations are being managed under his command as this certainly falls on his shoulders.

The entire management of the NAIA as a result of this incident now reckons with the thought if they really are prepared to handle a potential security scenario much worse than just a Tulfo-Santiago brawl. The passengers paying unfriendly airport fees certainly deserve to be protected in places they think is the safest that they can be. 

China Bank Burglary - In Depth

See News Report dated 07 May 2011: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/metro/view/20110509-335478/Burglars-hit-China-Bank-flee-with-P40-T-worth-of-gadgets

The opportunity burglars took when the UPS went out drained disabling the security systems mainly the intrusion alarms and the CCTV. There is this indication that suspects either had direct familiarity on the bank security systems including the movement of the guards or an insider who readily made the information available to them. This is based on the exact event they gained access to the bank premise.

It is safe to assume that suspects virtually knew as to when the system would go down. No forcible tampering on the systems which seemed to appear, suspects just waited for the UPS System to drain out. Physical security aspect of the structure is apparently weak more particularly the point of entry where the suspects sneaked in. It was not clearly stated though how they manage to challenge the back door.

No permanent security guard posted to secure the facility at night relying solely on the "passive type" of monitoring provided by the CCTV and the reactive intrusion alarm system. The move to focus guard deployment on daytime operations by the person deciding on security matters, should have been re-considered and taken into account based on risk assessments. All possible threat could have been identified and mitigated accordingly.

The fact that a bank facility's securty system has been breached is just a horrific issue. Security contraptions have to be reviewed and re-constructed immediately. In a much bigger picture, the incident could be a signal of an impending plan for a more serious criminal activity directed to the bank. The thought that suspects were able to breach the first and second line of defense, certainly suspects had a clearer map of everything inside the bank premise. Should it have been done by professionals, China Bank could have lost more than just a CPU and a cassette player.

The loss of the PC and the CPU is not a negligible issue and no less, should be considered a crucial factor in this incident including the value of information contained therein, purpose of the PC, the person whom this PC is assigned to and the level of access of that particular user to the system.

Whether or not police will entertain the theory that one of the bank guards may have a participation over this incident, immediate relief of all assigned should be in effect while investigation continues.

Profiling - d' mindset of a criminal

Special Crimes Division and similarly operating units under prominent law enforcement agencies in more advanced countries have long been organized. The operation more often is focused on information collection, analysis, interpretation of criminal behavioral characteristics and personality profiling which enables them to identify a potential perpetrator even before the progression of a crime. Profiling of a criminal’s way of thinking, behavioral probability analysis and evaluating the criminal mindset offers a higher likelihood of putting a face to an unidentified suspect and may even fit the rightful John Doe to a crime scene.

These units are designed solely to mitigate crimes that require a new system of approach and definitive counter response policies. Units formed to go after organized crimes, high-profile crime groups, trans-national crimes, suicide bombings, in-campus shootings and terror personalities tagged in order of battles are special units or special divisions. These units continue to develop and identify key strategies to combat crimes and continued rebirth of new modus operandi of crime organizations, criminal behavioral prototypes and seemingly criminal minds that endlessly find ways to level off operational strategies and instill unmitigated control over their respective forte.

A case failure constantly stems from the investigating unit’s inability to produce warranted evidence which is most likely sourced out from material witnesses, testimonials, documentary, physical evidences, circumstantial corroborations and those taken from the crime scene itself. In addition, the lack of a sincere follow-through and operational dedication by crime investigators recurrently top the list of the factors resulting to a vast failure in investigation. In broadest terms possible, a distinction between a recurring criminal activity from a serialized crime pattern should be clearly threshed out for a simple reason that two separate incidents with distinct relevance in modus operandi may have been perpetrated by two separate suspects.

A decrease of certain criminal activity may not suggest a conclusive semblance of success in law enforcement. In this junction, law enforcement officers must somehow go beyond the four corners of the library and expose themselves into a competitive system of learning, way past what has to be learned within the box. The old historical notion about the efficiency in crime resolution based on the ratio of apprehension after the commission of a crime should finally be driven off to a checkmate. On its face value, the concept of crime prevention driven with a passion to serve the citizenry without any reservation has never been less crucial in the anti-criminality and law enforcement.

Changing LINKS

– A Hate Crime

Hate Crime or then again defined as the Bias Crime or a Crime of Prejudice. What other compelling reasons could have been there for the suspects to perform such a horrible act other than glaring hate and anger unto the victims.

As a point of discussion, foreign experts, the Federal Bureau of Investigation for one, is inclined to believe that a perpetrator of a Bias or Hate Crime undergoes a precedented stage of depression, anxiety, humiliation, stress, rejection, betrayal and anger or even fear which often pushes them to project a series of actions to compensate or address such defect. These are but few which compromises the "crime dynamics". From a common person’s standpoint, this may be simply perceived as, a retaliatory process by one against another over a serious personal circumstance.

The perpetrators in the Talisay Chop-Chop Case seemingly as it is, had one or more of the above crime dynamics making them more capable in performing the act collectively. One crucial element that affords an aggressive reinforcement to Hate Crime Perpetrators is the element of "opportunity". It is under the same reason that perpetrators in prominent hate crimes statistically point out to someone acquainted or actually even lives in the same territorial boundaries of the victims. On the side of the suspects in the Talisay case, it can be gleaned that one of the suspects holds a form of relationship and actually even dwells in the same place with that of the victim. And like any other violent crimes, it only took them the so called "stressors" that triggered the perps to initiate the kill and the consequent dismemberment of the bodies in an inherent intent to conceal the crime.

In other countries where law enforcement deals with such crime almost in the same level of aggressiveness as common crimes, Special Law Enforcement Agencies in highly urbanized cities are in fact have long been organizing a Working Unit built exclusively to mitigate Hate Crime Incidents. The percent probabilities of such here may not be as alarming and could be lesser. Nonetheless, the police taking the lead in this case did a commendable act through the timely apprehension of the suspects with a collaborative effort of the community. Hate crimes may occur in random. But then again, it is never a guarantee that such crimes would not reoccur, for a simple fact that prominent massacres did take place in the country and right within the unexpectedly safest places we call “home”. No less importantly, it is in this contention that the crime dynamics could have been revolving in the mindset of the perpetrator as the crime unfolds.

A horrible crime of anger..

Important Warning: The photos in relation to this issue are intentionally modified to minimize the gruesome visual representations of the bodies of the victims when found in the crime scene by the Scene of the Crime Operators. The pictures as obtained from public information websites are hazed or indistinctively represented, out of respect to the well being of the family of the victims. Every peace loving citizen strongly condemns such violent acts and extends its sympathy to the individuals who have perished.

Just as we all are in fading perception on the spate of vigilante style killings, the Cebuanos were taken aback by the repugnant fate of Maria Eva Mae Peligro and Gwendolyn Balasta of Talisay City on the 24th of July. Body parts of both victims were uncovered simultaneously from different locations and foothills. Chunks and bits of human pieces, torso, hands, portion of the upper body and the victim’s head were found stuffed in a garbage bag which left people with horrible thoughts on how one could possibly perpetrate such inhumane executions.

With the suspects in police custody, the motives and evident causes were clearly established right through the confessions of the perpetrators themselves whom even ended up detailing in national television how the crime took place in its technical terms. In whatever way people look at murder from varying angles, the impact nowadays apparently does not anymore inherit the same degree of distress for a common Filipino looking at the same tragedy way back two decades past. What would linger sensibly the most, is the manner how such crime is meticulously hatched to its full perpetration.

While dissenting opinions pooled in all together to explore and assess all the essential merits of the crime, one factual issue that would stand strong in any progressive case discussions is that this indeed is what professionals would call – A Hate Crime...