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[av_heading heading=’ABOVE THE LAW ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY AYIN DREAM D. APLASCA
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Tuesday, November 28, 2017
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LAST WEEK, I had the chance to give a talk to BS Biological Sciences (Pre-Medicine track) students at West Visayas State University. I was tasked to discuss Forensic Law, particularly on autopsy and DNA evidence.
The goal of this educational course is to guide law (or even medical) professionals in the legal or justice system to support and uphold the rule of law. It is used in situations where a crime has been committed and evidence is collected at the scene, chemists or medical practitioners analyze it, arrive at scientific results, and give expert court testimony about their findings.
In this column, I will discuss autopsy. This is one of the many topics which a lot of people are not aware of. Of course, I will be discussing about how to secure services for autopsy.
Medical experts and pathologists consider autopsies as the ultimate quality assessment tool in understanding the exact cause and circumstances of death. And under the Philippine laws, autopsies are mandatory especially in crime-related deaths.
Autopsy is mandatory in deaths resulting from commission of crimes, occurring under suspicious circumstances, occurring as a result of violence or trauma, known or suspected as due to contagious disease and constituting a public hazard, occurring in prison or a penal institution or while in the custody of the police, and deaths of persons whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea, or otherwise disposed of, to be unavailable for examination.
There is a need to submit a letter of request. The person responsible for this is the Accreditation Committee of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory.
Then the aggrieved person may proceed to the Medico-Legal Division and present other copies of the letter of request and return the following day. In this stage, the persons assigned conduct inspection and evaluation of the facilities and equipment, prepare and draft the inspection and evaluation report, submit the report, advise the client to pay the required fees, and issue order of payment to be paid at the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Once the fees are paid, the persons tasked on the next stage prepare the death certificate. Once the certificate is prepared and ready for release, the PNP Crime Laboratory releases the laboratory report.
This is one of the many processes in post-mortem examination that is important in any criminal case. This process makes possible for law experts and judges to make good decisions about the guilt and innocence of the person. Every case generally depends not on circumstantial evidence or eyewitness accounts but more on concrete and scientific facts.
Solid facts are a great help in the role of the justice system to convict the guilty and acquit the innocent.
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(Atty. Ayin Dream D. Aplasca practices her profession in Iloilo City. She may be reached thru ayindream.aplasca@gmail.com/PN)
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