Guesswork, not forensics
Because of the stupid services of Sun cellular company which transmits your messages about an hour after you’ve sent them, my sister Majalla, myself and my husband had a late dinner last night and discovered one of the irrefutable reasons why so many Filipinos in the slammer insist that they’re innocent of the charges made against them. There really is a posibility that many Pinoys currently in jail for murder, rape, etc are innocent.
After the botched-up dinner and movie plans, we cut our losses we went back to the house, turned the tv, and sat down to a meal of barbeque.
So there we were, eating, and the program on tv happened to ABS-CBN’s ‘SOCO,’ or Scene of the Crime Operations, and it was hosted by veteran journalist Gus Abelgas. We’d never seen the show before, and we were thinking, heck, maybe this will be like CSI (which my sister is a great fan of) so we didn’t change channels.
Ten minutes into the program, all three of us were crying out in despair.
Forensic investigations in this country belong to the stone ages. Investigators use old newspapers to wrap materials and objects used by suspects, and they touch said objects (including weapons) with their bare hands! No gloves, no special paper, no nothing. They have no tools or technology to analyze fingerprints or blood stains, and they mostly rely on, well, hunches to put two and two together. Hunches and blind luck — in one of the cases presented, the mother of the man suspected of raping, stabbing and killing a 75 year old woman surrendered her son to the police.
Holy gee.
In the show, the expert in charge of analyzing handwriting found at a crime scene ( a letter allegedly written by the killer) used a Mongol pencil and she kept touching the evidence with her bare hands. She didn’t even think of dusting the paper for fingerprints, and cross-checking them with those of any of the suspects they had lined up.
They have no means of analyzing saliva or semen or DNA samples. It clearly appeared that all investigations cannot proceed beyond the surface level — cuts and abrasions, cause of death, etc. The only way to find the killer, it appeared, was to make intelligent guesses and to gather circumstancial evidence. Judging from the SOCO program which is touted to be an honest presentation of crime scene investigations are conducted in the country, autopsies are limited only to the skin and physical appearance of viscera.Heck. If they find convincing and plausible enough circumstantial evidence, the authorities nail and jail the suspect. Nevermind if there is still the big possibility of error.
Most likely, iniisip ng gobyerno na dahil mga mahihirap lang naman ang pinapatay, at kadalasan mahirap din ang pumatay, di na kailangan ng mas masusing imbestigasyon. I can picture the NBI and DOJ higher-ups thinking: What’s one less tambay, tindera, manggagawa o manggagawa - nakatira lang naman sila sa mga maruruming komunidad o mga liblib na lugar sa probinsya; mga lugar na nagiging mga pugad ng kriminalidad o ng mga komunista. Who’ll miss them?
Only families from the upper classes have the money and resources as well as influence to push for continued investigations into the murder of their loved ones. As for the rest, chalk it up to malas - ilibing na lang ang bangkay, at hayaang mabulok ang suspek sa kulungan o mabitay.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that not a single killer of the more than 100 political activists and journalists have been apprehended and brought to justice. Even if for a moment we pretend that this monster of a government did have the will to investigate these brutal killings, it’s highly doubtful that it will come up with credible findings.
The Macapagal-Arroyo adminsitration has not lifted a single finger and call for full investigations and judicial inquiries into the murder of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis members and leaders; journalists. None of the suspected perpetrators from the military and the gangster/political clans are being hauled off and charged.Gloria herself has not publicly voiced concern over the killings, much less order the concerned authorities to take necessary action. Inutil ang Department of Justice, walang pakialam ang National Bureau of Investigation.
Oh well, judging from the SOCO show, the NBI does not have the necessary expertise to deal with killings of any nature - pulitikal man o hindi. Kahit nga mga mas simpleng krimen, di kayang imbestigahan ng maayos. #
January 14th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Forensic investigations in the Philippines indeed belong to the Stone Age. But even within the Stone Age there are specific time frames. Forensic investigations in the Philippines belongs to the Paleolithic Period.