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Prosecution-Law Enforcement Dialogue
Region 10 DOJ-NPS Prosecutors and PNP Officers Discuss Investigation and Prosecution Matters

Northern Mindanao prosecution and law enforcement offices’ chiefs delve into issues and concerns in the investigation and prosecution of cases in the region in a dialogue on investigation and prosecution of offenses. The activity also served as a venue for the discussion of new legislation as well as the exchange of assessment and recommendations for future activities.

HSF

Since the last dialogue activity held in Manila in 2019, it was acknowledged that the ever-evolving criminal landscape has continued to change and it was deemed necessary for criminal investigation to adopt, at the minimum, in lockstep.  Both prosecution and law enforcement also wanted to keep informed of new legislation relevant to their work.  Opportunely, this activity was held as an occasion to exchange assessments, swap recommendations and plan future activities towards contributing to the improvement of criminal prosecution under the principles of law and order, redounding to the exemplary performance of each partner-agency.

Forty-five chiefs and representatives of city, municipal and provincial offices of both prosecution and law enforcement from the provinces of Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, and Misamis Oriental in the Northern Mindanao Region gathered for an in-person activity in Cagayan de Oro City on 22 June 2022.  They were joined by representatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU), Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division (RIDMD), City Investigation and Detection Management Unit, and the Women and Children’s Police Desk (WCPD) in the region.

HSF

“Through our dialogues, we somehow managed to bridge the gap and address issues and concerns in how we perform our duties and responsibilities as prosecutors and law enforcers, taking into account our respective mandates,” observed Northern Mindanao Regional Prosecutor Merlynn B. Uy.  Likewise, Northern Mindanao Regional Director Police Brigadier General Benjamin C. Acorda, Jr. acknowledged the benefits of the dialogue activities, “PRO 10 has been and will always be grateful to Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Department of Justice Prosecution Service for taking the lead to have this kind of dialogue so that our dedicated law enforcers or investigators will be fully equipped, be empowered, and be well-informed on the technicalities of police operations, in the conduct of arrest, gathering of evidences, the flow of investigation, and filing of criminal cases.”   

In their respective presentations, both the prosecutors and the police provided an update and the current statistics on the criminal situation in the region, their issues and concerns and suggestions on how these may be responded to.  New legislation that concerns prosecutors and police investigators, particularly those that can potentially affect case build up, were taken up, such as the delivery of detained persons, the rules on the use of body-worn cameras (chain of custody, including footage, and preservation of evidence), and plea bargaining in drugs cases.  Questions on these topics as well as on the crafting of affidavit-complaints were raised and tackled.  Copies of said legislation issued by the DOJ were provided in the activity kit for better familiarisation of those concerned.

HSF

Since 2017, the DOJ-NPS and the HSF have been working with the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, fostering exchanges between DOJ-NPS prosecutors and PNP police investigators in the Northern Mindanao Region to further their communication and information exchange in the prosecution of criminal cases.  For the period 2017 to 2019, this project cooperation carried out various in-person activities, such as dialogues in the region and in Manila, and a PNP-DOJ-HSF delegation to Germany.

The dialogue participants lauded the continuation of the series and acknowledged its positive contribution towards the further strengthening of DOJ-PNP relations.  Results from the discussions will serve as inputs to the succeeding activities planned to be held in the following months.  Amongst these are training activities and seminars to capacitate and enhance the knowledge of police investigators on various topics, as cybercrime, online sexual exploitation and other online scams.  Participants also recommended the continuous holding of the dialogue activities, including at the station levels, on a regular basis as a means of keeping abreast with the fast-changing situations on the ground and of promoting camaraderie between and amongst prosecutors and police investigators.

This is the first dialogue activity in 2022 after a long pause of more than two years due to the global health situation.  It succeeds the top-level dialogue held in Manila in November 2019 that was attended by the Secretary of the Department of Justice and the Chief of the Philippine National Police.  This activity was organised by the Department of Justice-National Prosecution Office (DOJ-NPS) in partnership with the Philippine National Police-Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (PNP-DIDM), with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation as part of the program, “Dialogue between Prosecutors and Police Investigators from the Northern Mindanao Region,” that began in 2017.

 

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