THE INNOCENCE Project Philippines Network (IPPN) was organized by Dr. Maria Corazon De Ungria and her husband, Atty. Jose M. Jose, for the purposes of:
1. providing free coordinated assistance to persons who were wrongly convicted,
2. pdvocating for better laws, rules, education, investigative procedures and evidence handling
3. enhancing the capabilities of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, forensic investigators and students, and
4. establishing an independent and accurate DNA or wrongful conviction database.
They work with volunteer lawyers which include Atty. Paul Heherson Balite.
I have contacted Dr. De Ungria, Atty. Jose, and Atty. Balite. I have invited them to join the chat group “Free the Innocents PH” that I have created in Facebook Messenger.
According to Dr. De Ungria, they have been running short-term internships for those who want to learn more about their advocacies and purposes. They will also be conducting online meetings wherein they hope to network with other law schools through their deans.
I am hoping that through the chat group, we will be able to bring together all the people who have been invited to work together in this advocacy, namely Atty. Nards De Vera, Atty. Patrick Malik Velez, Atty. Jovy Salazar, Atty. Lembo Santos and Atty. Raj Palacios of the Sigma Rho Fraternity, Lt. Col. Thess Bodo and Col. Reynaldo Calaoa of the PNP Forensics Laboratory, Dean JG Grapilon of the Philippine Law School, and Dean Juju Lotilla of the MLQU Law School.
Atty. Palacios plays a dual role, because he is also an Associate Dean of the UP College of Law.
Dean Grapilon and Dean Lotilla are also members of the Sigma Rho Fraternity.
I have also invited Ms. Angelica Gabinete of the the UP-Law Karapatan ng Komunidad sa Loob ng Selda, Fr. Firmo Bargayo, SJ and Mr. Gene Alolosan of the Jesuit Prison Service.
Hopefully, I will be able to invite some representatives from the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government, particularly from the Bureau of Corrections and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, respectively.
For my part, I hope to be able to contribute towards building the database of convicts who could potentially be freed using DNA evidence.
In the past, I have helped some government agencies in building their Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems. I also built the first National Crime Information System, some parts of which are still being used today./PN
