CRIMINALISTICS

AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN INVESTIGATIONS

Charlie DC Pascual, RC, PLM-COLLEGE OF LAW, IV Practicum

INTRODUCTION

CRIMINALISTICS may be variedly defined depending on the modes and

extent of its usage for each country. At this age, its definition is
conveniently a mouse click undertaking. But the best way ever of defining
it is to co-relate it with the practical and actual application of whatever it
is in the very scene of everyday Filipino lives.

Just how could an ordinary Filipino appreciate this word? It may be a

possibility so remote as that trying to toil for one’s full day meal. But just
a backgrounder, CRIMINALISTICS finds itself in the loop of everyday police
work in general. By layman’s understanding, it is simply a tool how the
police pin down a culprit. But inevitably, that concept lies on a thin line
bordering the inclusion of some unorthodox police methods of extracting
confessions, and the disturbing thing follows, that of possibility of veering
the physical evidence in the direction of that confession, so that instead of
the physical evidence triggering the confessions, its going to be the other
way around. When the case is thrust into the limelight amid the cameras
of press conferences, tendency is abound that a recreated scenario of the
case has now been drawn in the board to fit the eventual confession
extracted from a suspect. The sad thing is, it is not an infrequent
happening, that most of those pinned down are not the real culprits.

Internally in the law enforcement organization, the physical evidence is

the unwilling corroborative, the confession extracted by unorthodox
means being the principal. While in the press world, the, the physical
evidence is the principal factor, confession being the result of successful
establishment of the physical evidence by a scientific investigation. That
is CRIMNALISTICS for everyday Filipino life. That is CRIMINALISTICS as a
police work. This development spawns a misguided understanding to the
denizens of the investigative tool called CRIMINALISTICS. It is inevitable
for them now to associate CRIMINALISTICS to the other unorthodox means
of extracting confessions. In the slums of Manila, particularly in Tondo
district, street criminals would readily explain to anyone what is meant by
“Tinubig”, “Kuryente” and “Plastic”, these are some of the police’
unorthodox means of extracting confessions out of a suspect’s mouth. Just
over a month ago, an entire Police Station in said district faced human
rights investigation regarding a video of a petty criminal whose naked
body cringed in a fetal position lay howling in the floor, while allegedly the
police commander was pulling the genitals by rope.

Professionally speaking, the foregoing is neither an honest and accurate

portrayal of the broad definition of CRIMINALISTICS. It presents only an
objective perspective as it is drawn from the understanding of a common
individual.
CRIMINALISTICS, its practical definition
and application in Philippine Law Enforcement setting.

In the Philippines setting, CRIMINALISTICS may be defined as the

application of the various discipline of science relative to the collection,
identification, preservation, evaluation, analysis, interpretation and
presentation of physical evidence mainly for the identification of the
victim, the culprit and the establishment of the guilt of the accused in
court proceedings. It is very imperative that the scientific methods be
applied right from the very collection of the physical evidence up to the
final disposition of the case concerned, otherwise, however accurate the
results would be, if the collection handling and preservation of the subject
is put into doubt, the case is removed of its leg to stand.

Physical evidence are articles and materials found at the crime scene
relative to the crime. This is further classified into three, namely, the
corpus delicti ( the body of the crime); associative evidence ; and , tracing
evidence.

Not all articles found in the crime scene must be collected, the
investigator must have in mind the rules of admissibility of physical
evidence in court. Say for example, in a case of homicide, an investigator
can not just carry the antique painting hanging in the wall where no
relevant link can be made vis-a-vis the crime of a deranged man barging
into the victim’s living room fatally shooting him. The evidence collected
should be competent, material and relevant to the case investigated. For
this, the rules must be properly observed; (1) the articles gathered must
be properly identified ; (2) there must be a continuity of chain of custody
(3) the evidence gathered must be competent, material and relevant to
the case being investigated.

At this very stage, CRIMNALISTICS, however limited our local means are,
comes into play, as the need to identify at the same time collect and
preserve the physical evidence sets the investigation into motion. After
the identification and the determination of relevancy of the physical
evidence, the respective specific fields of CRIMINALISTICS are applied.
There are various fields referred to. In Firearms for example, the field of
Dactyloscopy or Fingerprint Examination operates for the lifting of
any latent prints embed in the firearms surface. Another field follows
namely the Forensic Ballistic, this field of CRIMINALISTICS concerns
itself with the application of science in the examination of the firearms’
class and individual characteristics, in order that it may be compared vis-
a-vis the data bank of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Unit, which is the
repository of firearms registered and licensed owners’ information. Still,
the method of further obtaining an object evidence from the suspect
himself involves another field, the Forensic Paraffin Test. This is a
scientific examination to determine whether a suspect has fired a shot
using the subject firearm. This is generally done by pouring a paraffin wax
into the suspect’s hands and the cast created lifts any nitrate specks
imbedded in the hands foreskin and made visible by iodine solution. This
method though, is now being subject to question following its gradual
abandonment as reliable method by international forensic community.

In crimes involving documents, the field of principal use is the

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS, or the forensic examination of handwriting,
signature and other alterations or fraud related to writing base.

Another significant development unfolded when this jurisdiction in one

case (People vs Vallejo) decided in 2002, has officially adopted the
Forensic science of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid ) analysis as
applied to identification of criminals though the examination and
comparison of chemical substance found in the genes of an individual. Its
high rate of reliability and accuracy though the use of forensic science
examination has led to a very extensive application that it is now very
much identified in the discipline of CRIMINALISTICS.

These are just some of the fields of CRIMINALISTICS commonly used in the
Philippines, some are available but have not been so much popularly
utilized as the aforementioned. These include the examination of
Footprints, which is called Moulage, Tire marks analysis ,fibers , Glass
among others.

FRONTLINERS IN CRIMINALISTICS

It used to be that collection of evidence are among the duties of the

investigator’s team dispatched in a crime scene. Generally, criminal
investigation starts at the crime scene except in cases of embezzlement
and forgery. The team is comprised of the Officer-in-charge, Assistant
Officer –in-charge, Photographer, Sketcher, Master Note-taker, Evidence
man, Measurer, and Technicians depending on the field applicable. Today,
the duty devolves in one agency. For general Police cases, it is the Scene
of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) that are dispatched to take charge of the
evidence gathering, identification, evaluation analysis and interpretation
in court proceedings. Of course, the National Bureau of Investigation has
its own Criminalistics Section, but unless it is specifically instructed to
take primary action, it does not respond to a common crime incident.

ITS SIGNIFICANCE

In a nutshell, CRIMINALISTICS therefore plays an equally significant cog in

the Philippines justice wheel. It is simply the application of scientific
principles in order to help the court to determined whether a crime has
been committed, to identify the perpetrator, the victim and to establish
the methods of operations. It affords our courts the facility on which it
may faithfully rely to enforce its conclusion in the disposition of cases and
the proper administration of justice.
CRIMINALISTICS-
 ITS USE IN INVESTIGATION
JIM S. PASCUAL, PLM LAW-IV Practicum

CONCEPT

CRIMINALISTICS is a field of forensic science which concerns itself with the

use of different scientific disciplines for the examination of physical
evidence gathered in a crime scene in order that the results thereof will
aid the law enforcement and prosecution arms of the government in
establishing their respective cases and affords the courts of sufficient aid
in enforcing its conclusion of a subject case.

UTILIZATION

In Criminal investigation, where I am also professionally involved, what we

have in the Philippines may not be readily compared with that of other
countries. There were times that our the law enforcement officers of our
neighboring Asian countries are dispatched here to undergo trainings
under local instructions. Presently, we have a very unique system of
criminal investigation considering the unique culture of our nation.
However, the system and procedure involved in gathering evidence are
usually synonymous, the great disparity lies on the scientific equipment
used to examine and analyze such evidence.

We define Criminal investigation as an art which deals with the process of

establishing the identity and location of the offender and provides
evidence of his guilt in criminal proceedings. Along this line
CRIMINALISTICS plays an integral role. The objectives of Criminal
investigation are (1) identify the criminal; (2) locate the offender; and, (3)
provide evidence of his guilt. The specific tools involved here are the
information, interrogation or interview and the last is Instrumentation.
CRIINALISTICS is mainly on the tools of instrumentation. While it is entirely
involved in the three phases of investigation namely, identification,
Tracing and locating the offender and the gathering of evidence.

Mostly, CRIMINALISTICS takes the most important part in the first phase
which is identification of the offender. There are several methods applied
in our Law enforcement setting, these are (1) confession or admission of
the criminal (2)Identification and Testimonies of Eye witnesses (3)
Identification based on Circumstantial evidence (4) Identification based on
Associative Evidence (5) and , Identification by the methods of operation
(Modus Operandi).

It is in this phase that the different fields of CRIMINALISTICS come into

play. Forensic Ballistic, which is the examination of firearms and bullets
identification; Fingerprint Examination; Chemical Analysis of different
substance, Galss, Fibers, Toolmarks, Tiremarks ; Questioned Documents,
which is the examination of handwriting, signatures and document fraud;

It is only imperative that the application of CRIMINALISTICS should

conform to the standards under the rules imposed by the courts in order
that it does not become an exercise in futility when the court decides to
uphold the doubt vis-a-vis the accuracy, integrity and acceptability of the
results of the examination.

CRIMINALISTICS has been very helpful in Criminal Investigations. The

Philippines though does not have enough and modern facilities to catch up
with its neighbors in criminal investigations utilizing the advanced
techniques that modern science has to offer. In the meantime, Philippine
law enforcement has to make do with the antiquated equipment until
some philanthropic countries dump their used Crime Laboratory
equipment here.

Compared to more advanced countries, the percentage of conviction of

criminals locally through the successful use of CRIMANILISTICS is not too
remarkable. There lingers the problem that the courts are not readily
convinced with the results of CRIMINALISTICS because along the chain of
disposition of the physical evidence, there might be a doubt on its
integrity.

Not only are we lacking of updated equipment, we also lack the necessary
training for the continuous enhancement of our crime scene operatives.
Be that as it may, some few good operatives maximize whatever
institutional facilities we have in order to meet the growing demands of
confronting the ever increasing rate of criminality.
There is equally a need to synchronize the skill enhancement and the
facilities updating, for however zealous our private sector are in donating
these CRIMINALISTICS equipment if the personnel are trained only to do a
ministerial switch on switch off , the equipment are destined to the junk.

There are those tools however that are done traditionally by manual
dexterity, and that is how the Philippines Law enforcement confront the
sophistications of more advance techniques. In Fingerprint examinations
for instance, our system is still on the original Faulds –Galton- Henry
generations. Our technicians can do no more than to do a manual
matching process vis-a vis a non-updatable Fingerprint data bank of the
National Bureau of Investigation. And because of the ever growing
population, it may take years to establish a match with those on record of
those lifted from the crime scene. In other words, unless the suspects are
readily available to provide for the standards, there is a nil opportunity to
find a match among those in store and thereafter establish a connection
to secure a conviction.

One remarkable development however, is the official recognition of our

justice system of the benefits of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
examination. Since 2002, there is a handful of court conviction with the
aid of DNA result. The good thing is, the Supreme Court even issued a rule
where a convict maybe freed in case a newly discovered evidence based
on DNA analysis is obtained giving reasons to reverse the conviction,
setting free an innocent.

The importance of CRIMINALISTICS in our justice system can not be

overemphasized, it is simply one of the most important factors in order for
our justice system to grind its wheels into an ideal administration of
justice, where the innocent are set free and the real offenders are held to
answer for their crimes.

PERSPECTIVE

Until our government gives its proper attention to modernizing our

criminal investigation capabilities, personnel and equipment wise, we will
have to make do with the traditional methods of CRIMINALISTICS and so
we may have to be content on the quality of our laboratory results. It is
not uncommon that our Law enforcement agencies give conflicting
findings. Take for example, the signatures involved in the Jose Pidal
controversy where the NBI confirmed the signature of the then First
Gentlemen while the PNB Crime Lab refuted such findings.

CRIMINALISTICS has evolved into an indispensable tool of modern criminal

investigation. Faced with the growing sophistication of criminal elements
and the growing subjects of crime, there is no way but to pace in with the
same development and appropriate measures should be advanced by the
government. CRIMINALISTICS in the future will inevitably involve the
forensic examinations of cyber world, and this might be another
compelling reason to train the government resources into seeking ways to
modernize it criminal investigation tools. Its about time that we must take
the full benefit of science.