The House Committee on Public Order and Safety has approved a substitute bill seeking to restructure the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The approved committee report of House Joint Resolution No. 11 (HJR 11) authored by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe and House Bill (HB) 5229 of Rep. Sancho Fernando Oaminal will be submitted to the plenary for further deliberation.
The authors said, “There is a need for the PNP to adopt a structure to address emerging threats and the impact of globalization, or advancing technology…[for the organization] to be responsive to the current challenges of law enforcement, such as kidnapping, human trafficking, terrorism, cyber-crimes, illegal drugs, and other public safety concerns such as effective humanitarian assistance and disaster response.”
For Oaminal, the PNP Reorganization Program is relevant to transform the PNP into a community-and-service oriented agency that can competently perform its sworn duty, geared to assist other governmental agencies in achieving national growth and security.
PNP Chief Maj. Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. expressed support for dynamic and innovative legislative proposals to improve the PNP.
Body cameras
Meanwhile, the committee also tackled HBs 3853, 4708, 6202, 6312 and 7602, which seeks to make body cameras a standard equipment for all law enforcement officers conducting law enforcement and special police operations, as a way to deter abuse and also a form of protection for law enforcers against baseless accusations of abuse of authority and violation of human rights.
Bicol Saro Rep. Bryan Raymund Yamsuan urged that the training of PNP personnel tasked with technology on body cameras, its loading docks and its storage should be enhanced and included in the PNP’s budget.
It was reported that the 228,000-strong PNP only has 2,696 units of body cameras available.
Yamsuan has underscored the need to properly train technical personnel that will handle and secure the recordings in body-worn cameras used in police operations to ensure the integrity of pieces of evidence when presented in court.
“You should include in your proposal for the body-worn cameras the corresponding training of personnel, because it is important that such individuals are highly skilled to handle this kind of sensitive data,” Yamsuan told PNP officials present during the hearing of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety.
A former Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Yamsuan also said the PNP should ensure that these recordings are hack-free and tamper-proof when presented in court as evidence.
“For the individuals involved, it could affect their lives if the PNP commits errors in submitting these videos and other data,” Yamsuan said.
Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop, and a former police general; along with Patrol Party-list Rep. Jorge Bustos, agreed with Yamsuan’s proposal.
Yamsuan pointed out that while body-worn cameras are now widely used to help deter inappropriate police behavior and protect crime suspects from abuses, there have been cases in other countries of law enforcement officers editing or deleting footage from such devices.
Last year, it was reported that the Metro Nashville Police District in the United States edited portions of body-worn camera footage supposedly to remove profanity and expletives in the video clips. The footage was part of the evidence in a police misconduct case.
During the hearing, the panel approved Yamsuan’s motion to refer the bills mandating the use by the PNP of body-worn cameras to the House Subcommittee on Police Operations headed by Abra District Rep. Ching Bernos for further study.
National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo said the agency supports HBs mandating the use of body cameras.