CSI a la PNP

MANILA, Philippines - We watch “CSI” and all those popular crime shows on television and wonder when our police will ever have those high-tech gizmos to solve crimes. Wonder no more. 

It may be the best kept police secret, but the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame, Quezon City is now a modern unit with advanced equipment and highly trained personnel. The agents of the Crime Lab, commonly called SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives), are as crucial to crime solution as police officers chasing criminals.

Deputy Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr., PNP deputy chief for operations, says a number of high profile cases have been resolved with the help of highly-trained forensic examiners using advanced and modern equipment.

“Police work not only involves intelligence gathering and crime prevention. It also involves crime scene investigation. So we need high-tech equipment and capable forensic examiners,” Cacdac tells STARweek.

Fortunately, the PNP was allotted in 2006 a five-year P10-billion Capability Enhancement Program for the procurement of equipment under the PNP’s Integrated Transformation Program (ITP).

Deputy Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr. and Chief Superintendent Lorlie Arroyo in the lab (on the cover) and with officers of the PNP Crime Lab.

With the additional budget and donations from foreign governments, the PNP Crime Lab has acquired some high-tech investigative equipment, like the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) worth P134 million, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) worth P500 million, DNA Laboratory, Composite Criminal Illustration System and Forensic Explosive Laboratory.

Chief Superintendent Lorlie Arroyo, chief of the Crime Lab who has been with the unit since 1980, says that the acquisition of high-tech equipment in their unit was complimented with training of their personnel here and abroad.

The IBIS technology came from Canada and has been adopted by more than 40 countries. “Every firearm leaves unique markings that serve as mechanical fingerprints of the gun on bullets and cartridge cases when fired. These markings can be used to trace a particular firearm,” explains Cacdac.

Before IBIS, Cacdac says the PNP used a microscope and manually examined ballistic evidence which, although accurate, usually takes 13 years with a technician working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to compare a specimen to over 1.3 million registered firearms.

“With the new technology, the examination period is shortened from 13 years to 40 minutes or less, with the specimen compared with all the samples in the database of licensed gun holders,” says Cacdac.

Through IBIS, investigators were able to trace the firearms the killers used in the shooting of Viva Hot Babe Scarlet Garcia, her boyfriend and two other friends during a robbery in Olongapo City last March 13, 2008.

The suspects escaped, but a month later, Garcia’s killers were arrested when they tried to rob a house in Pampanga. During cross matching, forensic investigators found out the bullets that killed Garcia came from the guns seized from the robbers.

Forensic examiners were also able to link the firearms to 34 other criminal activities in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

Cacdac supervises a crime lab examiner as he prepares a specimen for DNA testing. The lab’s Integrated Ballistic Identification System (inset).

Prior to the acquisition of IBIS, criminals arrested with a cache of firearms were merely charged with illegal possession, a bailable offense, without determining if some of the seized guns were also used in previous criminal activity.

The idea of purchasing IBIS technology was raised when Cacdac was the director of the Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) from 2003 to 2006. It was during the term of former PNP Crime Lab Director Ernesto Belen when the PNP began an aggressive effort to procure advance technology for forensic investigation.

The AFIS is a donation from the Japanese government. It was through AFIS that the infamous Pajero Lady was identified despite changing her appearance and identity by undergoing plastic surgery.

The suspect, who uses several aliases, tried to elude arrest by staging her own death after a badly-burned corpse was found inside a car in 2003. But police investigators found that her fingerprints did not match the fingerprints from the remains of the body found inside the car.

The Crime Lab also has a nuclear-type DNA Laboratory. However, it takes some 30 days for an examination to be completed. Now, Cacdac says, “The PNP would like to purchase the mitochondrial-type DNA Lab, in which the examination is completed in just three days. This is the type of the machine used by the FBI. And even if the corpse is already decomposed, we can still get results from bones.”

Crime Lab examiners also perform odontology or the scientific study of the structure and diseases of teeth. This was the process used in identifying Ruby Rose Barrameda, whose decomposing body was found stuffed and buried in a drum filled with concrete. Ruby Rose, 26, went missing in March 2007. Murder charges have been filed against her alleged killers.

The latest anti-crime equipment added to the PNP Crime Lab is the Composite Criminal Illustration System (CCIS), a technology that provides precise facial profiling of a suspect. The CCIS technology was proven to be accurate in the case of Jason Ivler, who was accused of shooting to death Renato Ebarle Jr., allegedly in a fit of road rage on Nov. 18, 2009.

Arroyo oversees an officer as he creates a composite sketch of a crime suspect.

“Using CCIS, a witness described Ivler’s looks to a forensic examiner. The technology provided a photo-like description of the suspect,” says Cacdac.

After the CCIS output was published in The STAR, the public became aware of Ivler’s description. “He used to go partying even if he had pending cases, but when his photo, which was prepared using the CCIS technology, came out, he was forced to limit his movements and was eventually arrested.”

The Crime Lab has also put up a Forensic Explosive Laboratory with the help of the Australian government, which is actively coordinating with the Philippine government in the campaign against terrorism.

“When I was there (Crime Lab), I fixed the forensic side. Then I became luckier when I was assigned as chief of the DIDM (Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management)… I fixed the field investigation. There are now three police manuals,” says Cacdac.

These manuals are the PNP operational procedures, the Barangay Peacekeeping Operations and Barangay Peacekeeping action team and the PNP Criminal Investigation Manual.

The DIDM has also published a handbook on Security Measures for Media Practitioners, a Criminal Investigation manual, the PNP Field Manual on Investigation of Crimes of Violence, and the Pre-charge Evaluation and Summary Hearing Guide.

Cacdac intensified training programs for forensic examiners and investigators which were initiated by then PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo. Bacalzo was the head of the DIDM before he became PNP chief in September 2010.

“We want to ensure they are competent in handling modern equipment. This is not only in technology but also the moral aspects of our technicians,” explains Cacdac.

Arroyo points out that skills of Crime Lab personnel and the advanced technology should be complemented with knowledge of first responders in preserving the crime scene.

“I’m so proud of my personnel who are committed and dedicated to the sworn duty,” says Arroyo.

Cacdac and Arroyo are shown where the boxes of evidence are stored.

Out of the 719 forensic examiners, 600 are already certified and considered as specialist first grade. “If they continue to conduct examinations, plus master’s degrees, advance courses, technical expertise, they will be eventually labeled specialists,” she says. Crime Lab personnel are licensed chemists, doctors, chemical engineers and criminologists.

After the procurement of the equipment for the Crime Lab at the PNP national headquarters, Cacdac says his next aim was to acquire and bring similar equipment to PNP regional and provincial offices.

After all regional officers have established their own modest crime lab, the next program was to create similar units and bring similar equipment to the PNP provincial offices, prioritizing the areas with high crime rates.

So far, Arroyo says Cacdac’s brainchild – “one province, one crime lab unit” – has evolved and now 69 provincial offices have their own crime laboratory.

“We’re not far behind other countries in terms of equipment and competent forensic examiners,” Cacdac adds.

He is proud that the Crime Lab has managed to obtain ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification for providing good service. From 2006 to 2010, the Crime Lab was the only ISO-certified unit in the PNP.

Cacdac has also made history in the PNP when he was able to implement computerization in the order of payment for firearm licenses and removed human intervention in the computation of guns’ license fees.

Cacdac’s program resulted in an increase of P100 million in the collection of firearms’ fees within one year.

“We hope that the PNP will earn the prestige it deserves. We planted the seed, it’s going to happen in the future,” Cacdac says. “By the second semester of 2012, we hope to complete the program – meaning all police investigators are competent and well-trained in handling crime investigation. The incoming investigators will also be subjected to rigorous training on the subject of police investigation.”

Cacdac considers the e-blotter concept as one of his greatest successes in the police service.

“It will provide real-time crime data to field commanders to guide them in their crime prevention effort. It will help ensure integrity of crime data, as it will be transmitted directly by the frontline units of the PNP,” Cacdac explains. “Eventually, people will be happy we started this. This will be the backbone of police clearance (certification) in the future at no cost to the government.”

This is CSI...in the real world of the PNP.