Lawmakers bat for mandatory use of body cams after killing of Navotas teen

MANILA, Philippines — The killing of 17-year-old Jerhod "Jemboy" Baltazar has prompted lawmakers from both chambers of Congress to push for the passage of a law mandating the use of body cameras in all law enforcement operations.

This was after the chief of Navotas City police bared Monday that one of the cops who pursued Baltazar and mistook him as their suspect did not turn his body-worn camera on during the operation.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) previously issued a memorandum in 2021 ordering all cops to use body-worn cameras in the execution of a search and arrest warrant or a warrantless arrest to deter police misconduct.

The 2021 memorandum reinforced the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Rules on the Use of Body-Worn Cameras in the same year, which required law enforcement agents to wear and use body cameras when serving arrest and search warrants.

RELATED: PNP says 'will find ways' to follow SC rules on body cameras despite lack of equipment 

An internal memorandum like the one issued by the PNP in 2021 conveys rules within an agency but does not have the legal authority of a law, which cannot be as easily scrapped and will require congressional steps to be repealed.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said Tuesday that Senate Bill 1057 or the proposed Police On-Body Cam Act will require all law enforcers to use on-body cameras and leave these turned on and running until they wrap up operations.

"The function of the on-body camera will be two-pronged: protect the public against police misconduct by improving law enforcement accountability and help protect our policemen from false and uncorroborated accusations of abuse," Gatchalian said.

Senate Bill 1057, which was filed 2022 and is pending at the committee level, stated in its explanatory note that the measure intends to “institutionalize the introduction of bodycams by the PNP for its personnel, and to expand its application to other law enforcement agencies, especially those involved In anti-illegal drug and criminality operations.”

Similarly, Rep. Camille Villar (Las Piñas) called for the passage of House Bill 8352 on Tuesday, which also requires law enforcement officers to wear body cameras in conducting operations, with the additional requirement of the use of dashboard cameras.

According to the House bill, which is also pending at the committee level, all footage taken using a body cam shall be retained for one year and for another three years if the video captures an “interaction or event involving any use of force or an encounter about which a complaint has been registered by a subject of the footage.”

Navotas cops killed 17-year-old Baltazar while they were pursuing a suspect in a shooting incident on August 2 in what the Philippine National Police described as a case of "mistaken identity." 

According to the Navotas police chief, some police personnel have similarly left their body-worn cameras turned off during previous operations, with cops saying the devices had run out of batteries. 

Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc has recommended a retraining of the country’s entire police force, stressing the need for law enforces to avoid rights abuses in fighting crime.

Stricter rules on the use of body cameras were issued in 2021 in response to reports of widespread police abuses in the conduct of anti-illegal drugs operations under the so-called “war on drugs” of the Duterte administration. — with reports by Gaea Katreena Cabico and Kristine Joy Patag