Japan donates forensic equipment to help the Philippines probe custodial deaths

MANILA, Philippines — Japan has donated forensic equipment to the newly established National Forensics Institute to aid the Philippines in investigating custodial deaths.

The equipment, worth about $133,000 (roughly P7.58 million), was funded by Tokyo through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It was turned over Wednesday, August 20, at the NFI, which is housed in the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.

The donation of the equipment is part of the “Institutional Investigation of Custodial Deaths Support Project,” a program that has run for about two and a half years. The project is designed to build a framework for autopsies in custodial death cases and improve the credibility of the justice system. 

Custodial death refers to cases where a person dies while under the custody of law enforcement or inside a detention facility.

Japanese Ambassador Kazuya Endo, who attended the handover ceremony, said the donation was a milestone in Japan’s cooperation with the Philippines and is "the first tangible contribution by the Government of Japan to support the establishment of the NFI,” according to a statement by the Japanese Embassy on Wednesday.

The Japanese ambassador added that the institute was created to strengthen the forensic capabilities of law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities.

Endo recalled Japan’s work with the UNODC to enhance the Philippines’ capacity to investigate custodial deaths and said the donation of equipment to NFI is a “culmination of these efforts.”

The handover comes a year after the Department of Justice (DOJ) pledged to conduct forensic autopsies on deceased inmates under the Bureau of Corrections’ custody.

The agreement, signed in August 2024 by DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, the UP College of Medicine, and the UNODC, requires that inmates who die in Metro Manila prisons be immediately brought to the UP College of Medicine for autopsy that is in line with international standards.

The NFI was  launched June this year after its creation was formalized in an administrative order signed 2025 by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.