Congress allots P334 million for cops’ body cameras
A policeman wearing a body camera checks a motorcyclist’s papers at a checkpoint in Barangay Oranbo in Pasig City on November 30, 2017. Boy Santos/File
MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers have increased the funding for body cameras to be worn by policemen to make their operations more transparent and check against alleged extrajudicial killings.
“Under the 2018 national budget signed by President Duterte on Tuesday, we have allocated P334 million for the purchase of body cameras for the police. This represents a more than 200 percent increase from its initial funding of P100 million,” Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, House appropriations committee chairman, said yesterday.
He said the allocation “is a big step toward modernizing our police force.”
The huge increase, he said, is Congress’ response to the President’s call for the national police force to show heightened transparency in the continuing war against illegal drugs and criminality.
He added that the mass use of body cameras by law enforcers is a recent trend in various parts of the world.
Nograles noted that a majority of large police departments in the United States began using body cams in 2015.
“It’s high-time for our policemen and other law enforcers to be deployed with body cams. President Duterte’s critics have also called for this, and him, he will never shirk from anything that will benefit his countrymen,” he said.
Aside from providing the public with more transparency during police operations, the body cams will also serve as a handy tool for the law enforcers themselves, he said.
“The apparatus will help policemen in evidence gathering, documentation and post-operation assessment. There have been reports from body cam-wearing cops overseas that arrested individuals admit to their offense quicker when they realize that their actions were recorded. It makes the job of the police easier,” he said.
Nograles also said Congress increased the 2018 budget of the Philippine National Police by P20 billion to P131 billion. This year’s allocation is P111 billion, he said.
Of the increase, P850 million was appropriated among police stations nationwide, he said.
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