Sinas intends to raise efficacy of PRO-7’s crime laboratory

CEBU, Philippines — The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) intends to raise the level of the efficacy of its crime laboratory unit by augmenting additional personnel to conduct investigation especially on cases involving police operations.

In a press conference, Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas told reporters that one of his plans as newly-installed director is to empower the unit for them to recover vital pieces of evidence from a preserved crime scene.

“We are now having an arrangement na kapag police operations, we will empower the crime laboratory to do the investigation for us, sila nag recover for us,” Sinas said.

Sinas was the former chief of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory before he was named as commander of the regional headquarters.

He said in previous interviews that the crime laboratory is equipped with sophisticated machines to produce scientific proofs, such as gun residue and fingerprints on evidence.

“All cases not only limited to high-profile cases, we will empower the regional crime office by assigning additional personnel to compose the Scene of the Crime team in the city and province,” he said.

In a phone interview with Senior Superintendent Grace Eustaquio, chief of the Crime Laboratory in Central Visayas, scientific evidence has more weight than testimonial evidence and makes cases filed by police officers stronger when taken to court.

“Ang physical evidence ang pinakamagandang proweba, a scientific evidence, unlike testimonial na maari pang ma-question. It (scientific evidence) can tell what really happened,” she told The FREEMAN.

Also, the crime laboratory as third-party investigators reduces doubts of partiality on the police unit that handles the investigation of an alleged shootout, which is often questioned by the Commission on Human Rights.

It can be recalled that Sinas directed personnel of the crime laboratory to handle the investigation on the shootout between one of the suspects in the killing of Buenavista Mayor Ronald Lowell Tirol and police officers, which resulted in the death of the suspect.

This is to clear doubts that the operation was overkill.

Presently, the crime laboratory in Central Visayas only sends three personnel as crime operatives team to handle cases of shooting and other incidents.

However, the ideal count should be seven per team in order to properly perform their task.

On allegations that they recycle evidence, Eustaquio said that personnel in Central Visayas are strictly following procedure, as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) also tracks and conducts an inventory on the items. —/MBG (FREEMAN)