Committee chairman Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa wrapped up the hearings on the issue, although “minor kinks” will still be ironed out by the technical working group.
“At the committee level, it’s considered approved,” Dela Rosa told reporters after the hearing on Wednesday.
He said he hopes to sponsor the bill on the Senate floor before Congress goes on recess in March.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1202071/bato-wants-body-camera-law-in-place-before-may-2020
Once enacted into law, Dela Rosa said law enforcers, including members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, would be required to use body-worn cameras on law enforcement operations.
During the two hearings conducted by the panel, however, there were proposals that body-worn cameras should be used only for “planned operations,” and not on in flagrante arrest, the senator noted.
Besides, he said, it would be impossible also to give all members of the 190,000- strong Philippine National Police, which he previously headed, body cameras because of budget constraints.
“Kung sino yung mag conduct ng planned operations, sila ng issue-han ng camera. Lipa-lipat muna yung camera. Hindi pwedeng merong isa-isa, mahal masyado yun,” dela Rosa explained.
(Those who will conduct planned operations would be issued cameras. You can’t issue it to everyone, that’s too expensive)
Dela Rosa noted that even before the proposed bill is signed into law, some law enforcers, like those from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, are already using body-worn cameras.
In fact, Major General Guillermo Eleazar, the chief of the directorial staff of the PNP, informed the body that 2, 696 units of body cameras and 198 docking stations are scheduled to arrive on May 11, 2020.
The equipment will be distributed to various police offices and stations, Eleazar said during the hearing.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1188351/body-cameras-for-cops-coming-soon-says-acting-pnp-chief
Dela Rosa pointed out that the measure would not only institutionalize the use of body cameras, but it would also provide a “legal template” for law enforcement operations.