Australia donates P2 M in equipment to PNP to identify disaster victims

Australia has donated P2 million worth of equipment to the Philippine National Police (PNP) to help identify victims of disasters, calamities and other national emergencies.

The rapid deployment kits will be deployed to St. Bernard town in Southern Leyte where rescue workers continue digging for victims believed buried in the landslide last month.

Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen, PNP Crime Laboratory director, said the disaster victim identification (DVI) would enable the PNP to better manage procedures and protocols at the early stage of future disasters and other national emergencies.

"The equipment would also limit the potential for errors in the identification procedure" for victims, he said.

The donated DVI equipment is the first in the inventory of the crime laboratory, he added.

On Monday, Australian Ambassador Tony Hely formally turned over the DVI truck-trailer to PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Belen and Agent Kurt Plummer, senior police liaison officer of the Australian Federal Police, witnessed the proceedings.

Belen said the DVI truck-trailer contained various crime scene, forensic and medico-legal investigative kits, tools, protective outfits and other equipment that will provide the necessary support to identify the first 200 victims of future disasters.

"Scene of the crime operations (SOCO), mortuary management, ante-mortem and reconciliation phases of DVI operations are also included in the provisions of the trailer," he said.

Belen said some of the equipment was loaned to them by the Australian government for use in the recent Southern Leyte landslide.

"We were able to process at least 61 of the victims," he said. "We are now awaiting the identification cards of the victims for comparison with our findings to identify them."

Belen said they would replenish the DVI equipment deployed in Leyte with "what we have now."

The DVI kits-carrying trailer is designed for off-road transportation and is fully equipped and self-contained with its own internal power supply and lighting facilities to allow operation on a 24-hour basis and in various weather conditions, he added.

Belen said the truck-trailer can be deployed to respond to mass casualty incidents and other disasters whether man-made, technological or natural.

Australia, through its Federal Police Law Enforcement Cooperation Program, has shared with the Philippines its know-how and technological expertise in disaster victim’s identification, he added.

Australia is considered one of the pioneers in mass disaster victim identification worldwide, having started its own DVI in 1961, in the aftermath of the Viscount aircraft crash in Botany Bay. — Non Alquitran