Private security firms thriving amid peace and order concerns

Local security firms in the Philippines continue to thrive as growing concerns over peace and order situation give hope to an industry battered by the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic almost three years ago.

The Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators Inc. (Padpao), a trade group of more than 700 private security firms in the Philippines, told the Inquirer on Thursday that their business is currently an P8.5-billion industry at the very least.

“We see positive things for the industry. Investors and local companies, just like before, are still wary of corruption and peace and order,” Padpao president Ramon Bergado said, adding that the government needs to be harder on crime and focus on this problem area.

“The industry thrives when there is rampant crime because private businesses augment their postings because security is a deterrent,” he added.

However, the Padpao official said the industry has yet to recover to prepandemic levels, saying that most businesses and commercial establishments which employ their services have yet to fully open.

Bergado said that the industry was one of the badly hit sectors during the height of the health crisis, saying that it slashed their business by as much as 50 percent.

“Because of the pandemic, many of our agencies lost 40 to 50 percent of their postings. But the consolation is that we are gradually recovering,” said Bergado.

Currently, the Padpao official said their member firms employ around 700,000 people, 500,000 of whom are armed security guards. The rest are owners, security officers and consultants, he added.

From the perspective of security expert Rommel Banlaoi, the private security industry is thriving in the Philippines because the private sector takes the responsibility to protect itself.

“The limitation of the police forces to be the security provider of the people against crimes and other forms of violence also encourages individuals to organize private armies for personal and family protection,” Banlaoi, who is the president of the Philippine Society for Intelligence and Security Studies and the chair of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told the Inquirer.

Banlaoi added that the private security market in the Philippines is growing because of the growing demand for security that the police force fails to solely provide.

“The situation does not imply that the police is not doing its job. It means that the job of promoting peace and order has become gargantuan requiring the decisive action of the private sector,” he said.