Use of K-9s by private security agencies ‘illegal’

CABANATUAN CITY – The use of bomb-sniffing dogs or K-9s in public areas by private security agencies is a violation of the law, a top official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Raul Bacalzo, chief of the PNP’s Security Agency and Guards Supervision Division, said the deployment of K-9s in public by security agencies is not covered by Republic Act 5481 or the Private Security Agency Law, which governs their operations.

"As far as the K-9s are concerned, the law does not authorize security agencies to use them in their operations. It is illegal," Bacalzo said.

The military has been using the K-9s in guarding vital installations classified as primary targets of terrorists in Metro Manila such as shopping malls, oil depots and mass transport facilities, among other areas.

Their deployment came at the height of a series of bombings in the cities of Kidapawan and Zamboanga in Mindanao, which killed at least 20 people and wounded hundreds more, the recovery of blasting caps on a Bicol-bound bus in Pasay City last week and an improvised bomb inside a bus in Laguna last Oct. 17, and the Oct. 18 bombing of the Golden Hi-way Transit bus in Quezon City that killed two passengers and injured 20 others.

However, Bacalzo observed that some private security agencies have also started using the specially trained dogs.

He said RA 5481, which provides the guidelines on the operations of security agencies, contain some gray areas, including the absence of a provision on K-9s.

In fact, he said the PNP Civil Security Group under Director Reynaldo Berroya is proposing that the law be amended to plug these loopholes.

The law was passed in 1969 and many of its provisions are already obsolete and not applicable at present, Berroya said.

"In fact, the security situation then was entirely different from our security situation now. Before, there were hardly any terrorism-related activities as well as kidnappings for ransom," he said.