Lawmakers want prosecutors to have role in evidence gathering

Officials and members of the House of Representatives are supporting a bill that provides a criminal justice system modeled after the United States, where cases filed by law enforcers are most likely guaranteed to result in conviction once handled by government prosecutors.

The Criminal Investigation System Act, or House Bill 08, authored by House Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu aims to strengthen the criminal investigation process by allowing prosecutors and law enforcers to work together in the gathering of evidence.

Unlike in the US where cases are handled by the District Attorney – the counterpart of the national prosecution service of the Department of Justice in the Philippines – cases filed by local police are dismissed most of the time due to lack of evidence or bungled evidence.

“Under the present system, prosecutors do not have a role in the investigation process itself. They only rely on the reports and evidence submitted by the investigators. Hence, they lack the capacity to evaluate or validate all facts submitted by the police,” Abu said.

For this reason, Abu wants to amend Republic Act 5180 and similar presidential decrees to ensure the speedy and effective management of the criminal investigation system.

HB 08 is co-authored by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya Jr., House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe, and House Minoriy Leader Danilo Suarez, among others.

HB 08 and similar measures like House Bills 775, 3081, and 3296 are being harmonized by the technical working group of the subcommittee on investigation and enforcement reforms of the committee on justice chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali. “The effective prosecution of criminal cases is difficult to obtain because of flawed and misguided prosecution of criminal investigations,” Abu said.

“The outcome of a case depends upon the quality of the evidence presented to the court and the quality of evidence depends upon investigations from its earliest stage.

“The present system of our criminal investigations has proven to be ineffective. Most of the criminal prosecutions fail due to several irregularities in the investigation process such as unreasonable delay on the part of the law enforcers, mishandling, absence of failure to preserve the evidence, unlawful arrests, use of torture to force persons to confess to crimes they did not commit, intimidation and harassment of witnesses, dereliction and other incidents prejudicial to the proper prosecution of the case,” the authors of HB 08 added.