Still no body cams

I thought body cams would now be used in operations against illegal drugs and the serving of search warrants following the order of PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar? Ten Laguna policemen were serving a search warrant on Antonio Castillo Dalit when the suspect supposedly fought back, prompting the policemen to defend themselves and kill Dalit. A sixteen-year-old boy was also killed for the same "nanlaban" reason. So where are the body cams? What reason are we going to hear from the police this time? They're broken? No battery? No training? They weren't supplied any? Now they're giving the same, tired old reason since the start of this administration as to why they had to kill Dalit and sixteen-year-old Johndy Maglinte. But relatives of the victims refute the narrative of the policemen, saying Dalit was killed first, and because Maglinte witnessed it he was also killed while handcuffed with his face to the ground.

The ten policemen are now in restrictive custody while an investigation is underway. General Eleazar is asking the public to let the investigation run its course before rendering judgment. But one cannot avoid the comparison to the killing of Kian Delos Santos who begged for his life but was executed just the same to ramp up the numbers of illegal drug-related killings since President Duterte came into office. A campaign promise of ending the drug scourge in six months when in fact nothing seems to have changed. Just recently P102 million in shabu was seized in a Manila drug bust from a Chinese national. Seems the drug suppliers merely changed nationalities.

This is the first controversial case under PNP chief Gen. Eleazar. He may retire even before the investigation is finished where the case does not progress and the ten policemen will just wait for a PNP chief sympathetic to policemen, may they be right or wrong. I was hoping to hear a statement from Gen. Eleazar as to why body cams were not used in this operation. The police may have not yet have accepted the wearing of body cams. It is a far cry in other countries where the police cannot go on duty without body cams since the videos are used in court. Police mistakes or operational lapses are likewise recorded. There are many YouTube videos of police body cam footage in the USA where police are caught unaware of the law or have overstepped their responsibilities, even lying to justify an arrest.

We are still waiting for the first body cam video from the PNP. But I have this gut feeling only legitimate operations will be recorded and not the questionable ones such as this raid in Laguna. The operation in Laguna would have been appropriate for the use of body cams. Why they were not used merits an explanation.