ILOILO City – City police stations in Panay Island and Negros Occidental received 254 body-worn cameras purchased by the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters.
“Sa aton mga city police stations pa lang. Indi pa tanan may ara,” according to Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
The cameras, however, couldn’t be used just yet. The PNP is still finalizing the implementing rules and regulations, said Malong.
There will also be trainings for policemen on the use and maintenance of the cameras prior to their use, she added.
Because “the items were directly delivered by the suppliers to the recipient police stations,” Malong said the PRO-6 had no idea how many body cameras each station received.
The PNP procured body cameras to ensure transparency in police operations.
PNP spokesperson Brigadier General Ildebrandi Usana previously said, among others, that the body cameras would address supposed lapses in police operations.
The PNP acquired about 2,696 body-worn cameras and their associated systems from San Juan City-based EVI Distribution Inc.
PNP director for logistics Major General Angelito Casimiro said these cameras were equipped with SIM cards that would make it possible to feed videos to the PNP Command Center.
The body cameras are waterproof and can record video for up to eight hours. The officers wearing them cannot interfere with its configuration and they cannot turn these off until they go off duty.
The mandatory use of body cameras in police operations has long been delayed – proposed in 2017 following the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, funded after Congress approved a P334-million budget in 2018, and awarded to a contractor in 2019.
To fast-track the use of body cameras during police operations, several senators called for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 42, or The Body Camera Act that requires law enforcers to activate the devices at the beginning of operations or at the first reasonable opportunity when there is an immediate threat to life and safety.
Lawmakers from the House of Representatives’ Makabayan bloc also called for an investigation on the delay in the “purchase and use” of police body cameras.
Under House Resolution No. 1480, the Makabayan bloc pointed out that P334 million was allocated for such under the 2018 national budget.(with a report from PNA/PN)
