Fidencio Waggay III

JD-4
Practicum

“Interview pertaining our existing Investigation Process”

The process is encapsulated under the PNP Manual entitled “PHILIPPINE

NATIONAL POLICE MANUAL
PNPM – DIDM – DS – 9 – 1”. The investigations mature into one of two
categories. Namely ones that can be filed under “Regular filing” and
ones that are categorized as under “Inquest”. Cases filed for regular
filing are the ones in which the details and circumstances pertain to non-
urgent incidents or wherein the crime has been committed does not
need instantaneous attention. The ones for Inquest in contrast are ones
which need immediate attention which may also involve immediate
apprehension of the accused.

As also indicated in the manual which is also observed the desk duty
officer shall:

a. Record the time it was reported;

b. Get the identity of the caller/complainant;
c. Get the place of the incident;
d. Get the nature of the incident;
e. Get the number of victim/s;
f. Record a brief synopsis of the incident;
g. Direct the nearest mobile car/beat patrollers or the nearest police
precinct to act as first responder equipped with “police line” to
secure the place of incident a camera; and
h. Inform the duty investigator (preferably one team of investigators)

It is also a part of the process to determin whether the case is cognizable

by the Katarungang Pambarangay Law. If such is covered then the
parties are directed to the proper Barangay of proper jurisdiction.

If the case falls within the jurisdiction of the precinct then the officers
shall complete the investigation and forward the information to the
prosecutor on duty for inquests. The prosecutor then determines the
next courses of action which may involve detention of the accused and
filing of the proper information if all elements of the alleged crime are
present.

There are instances of back and forth most specially in cases where
certain requirements or details are not present. In which case either the
officers file a supplemental report or the prosecutor would ask for one.

The current investigation process is pretty straightforward and intuitive

with very little margins of error since it is apparent that the process is
clear, categorical and involves the right filters. However it may improve
the process further if an auditor assigned to counter check that all
details are present prior to forwarding to the prosecutor to prevent any
back and forth. Since as also stated by the interviewed officer, there is
no filtering or audit process and the checking is left at the sole discretion
of the prosecutor. Nonetheless, the existing process albeit not perfect is
functional has few bottlenecks of loopholes.