Deputy Speaker and Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar on Tuesday called for the passage of a measure institutionalizing the use of wearable body cameras in legitimate law enforcement operations.
Villar made the statement in light of the recent killing of a Navotas teenager which led to public outrage.
Villar, author of House Bill 8352 which seeks to mandate the use of body cameras and police dashcams, said the case of 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar, who was shot and killed by police in what they considered as a mistaken identity, is a “huge setback” in delivering greater
transparency in police operations.
On August 2, Baltazar and his friend were preparing their boat to go fishing when a cop ordered them to get off. Baltazar’s friend, who survived unscathed, said they tried to surrender but the police kept shooting, prompting the former to jump into the river.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has admitted “lapses” in the Navotas operation and said the officers directly involved had either failed to turn on their body cams or that the devices ran out of battery.
Under Villar’s proposal, 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.”
The national police force had said they had deployed body cams in 2021, but admitted many police officers were not properly observing protocols and use of such devices.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday meanwhile slammed Navotas City Police chief Col. Allan Umipig’s disclosure that the policemen involved in the fatal shooting of the teenager did not use body-worn cameras.
Gatchalian said due to this, he has been pushing for his proposed Senate Bill No. 1057 or the Police On-Body Cam Act.
The measure provides that during anti-illegal drug and criminality police operations, members of the PNP, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and other law enforcement agents will be mandated to use on-body cameras.
Law enforcement agencies shall also be mandated to establish protocols and stringent standards for the responsible and effective use of these
cameras.
These shall be turned on and left running until the operations have been completed. PNP Memorandum Circular No. 2018-099 was issued in
March 2018 setting the operational guidelines and policies on the use of body-worn cameras.
“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.