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C.S.I., Philippine-style
Source: Inquirer
Author: Ime Morales Aznar
Date: 2002-10-19
 
Different



IF you have ever watched Crime Night, FBI Files, and Medical Detectives on Discovery Channel or CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) on AXN, you would have noticed how differently death scene investigations are conducted here in the Philippines. It's not uncommon to see tampered evidence, media people taking pictures/footage of the victim's face, uzis walking around stepping on bloodstains, and presidents visiting the scene for photo-ops.



During a 2-day course on forensic science, entitled "Forensics in Human Rights Work", at the UP College of Medicine last September, distinguished authorities in the field -- Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun, Dr. Cecil Lim, and Dr. Danilo Magtanong -- discussed various topics pertaining to the different areas of forensic expertise. The UP Medical Student Council sponsored this affair organized by Health Action for Human Rights (HAHR), a human rights organization composed of professionals, workers, and students mostly from the health sector. The event was launched in order to help medical practitioners and volunteers who go on fact-finding missions to investigate cases of human rights abuse. This is something that HAHR anticipates "will escalate, amidst the present administration's declaration of a strong republic."





The seminar explored actual crime scene-related blunders (horror stories, as forensic scientists aptly call them, are in italics) committed by some local investigators, medicolegals, politicians, media people, and other so-called experts. This is C.S.I., Philippine-style.



The doctor as investigator



During crime scene operations conducted locally, it is not unusual to see a medical doctor participating in the investigation, as part of the investigating team. The doctor even decides which pieces of evidence are important, instructs the investigators which items to pick up and what to do with them.



In an ideal setting, the investigators tell the doctors (who come to the death scene to examine the body) where to walk and where not to walk, where to go and where not to go. The investigating team is divided into groups with specified tasks. For instance, one group is tasked only with recovery of evidence, while the doctors' responsibility is only the body. There is obviously no system in our local practice where everyone gets his or her hands on everything.



Come as you are



Here, people who enter the crime scene come as they are. The uzi housewife who came from the market, her dripping plastic bag in hand, the media men with their lights and cameras, the politicians in their barongs, policemen sans the hand gloves. It's no wonder important pieces of evidence are tampered, stolen, or completely obliterated.



There is an appropriate attire that everyone is required to wear before entering a death scene. Obviously, shoe covers and hand gloves are a must. There is even a proper stance: the gloved hands, if they shouldn't be working on anything, must be kept to oneself (inside the pockets, or at least held together below the chest). Where there is a lot of blood on the floor, or footprints that may be used as evidence, professional investigators even use mobile platforms to go around, even while wearing shoe covers.



If the shoe fits



In one death scene where the suspect was present, a local policeman asked the suspected criminal to literally step on the blood-stained shoeprint that he found, to see if the suspect's shoe matched the shape and size of the evidence.



The policeman should have taken a scaled photograph of the shoeprint instead, taken the suspect's shoe(s), then submitted both as evidence.



But there have been cases, too, when investigators, having enough sense to photograph the evidence, took pictures of objects found in the scene. However, some never even bothered to include a measuring device or another object that may be used as reference to determine size. There was also one particular case when police contracted someone with a camera to take pictures of the crime scene (obviously, they don't always have their own photographer). As to be expected, the photos were badly framed or cropped such that a vital piece of evidence (a shoeprint) doesn't show completely in one picture. Apparently, the photographer didn't recognize the value of the shoeprint as evidence, which was understandable since he was not a trained forensic photographer. Even more frustrating was the fact that the family of the victim was asked to pay for the pictures taken!

 

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