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Strengthening Case Evidence and Case Filing through

Reinvestigation of Cold Cases: A Priority Program of the
PNP

I. Background

The Philippine National Police defined Cold Case as a case at hand
that has not been cleared or solved and which probative investigative
leads have been exhausted, however, yielded negative result or
progress for six (6) months.
Cold cases are rarely reinvestigated as the limited capacity of the
investigation service is devoted to investigating newly committed
crimes. At present, a considerable portion of the budget for the PNP is
allocated to the investigation of new crimes and only a small part of this
budget is allocated for the conduct of review of cold cases. Of these
numerous cold cases, only the sensationalized crimes are given
attention. Hence, it is not surprising that the number of cold cases
continue to rise through the years.

II. Purpose

Neglect of cold cases hinders the PNP in attaining the Peace and
Order of our society for two main reasons;

One is that it will aggravate the low trust and confidence of the
community on the ability of the PNP. Piling up of unsolved cases
affirms the communitys perception towards PNP that it is either
neglectful or incompetent in solving crimes. Consequently, the
willingness of the populace to cooperate with the PNP, as law
enforcers, will also be affected negatively.

Another is that it will escalate social danger. The reality is that
criminals do not usually commit crimes only once. As long as they are
at large, they will proliferate commission of crimes. If one has to think
about it, a criminal who committed murder in 2011 who was not caught
still enjoys liberty and roams around amongst the law-abiding citizens
possibly seeking for his/her next victim. This situation may be
reversed, if the criminals who committed offenses even years before
are identified or caught. The best deterrent against crime is the
certainty of arrest and conviction of criminals.

The fact remains that the conduct of reinvestigation of cold cases
cost much more than the investigation of newly committed crimes not
only in terms of money but also of time and effort. However one has to
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believe that there will be a return of investmentsthat is the
attainment of peace and order in the society.

III. Details

At present, the total strength of Investigators of the PNP is 11,
232. This number of investigators is projected to be capable of
handling 44, 928 with 4 cases per Investigator. That means 8% of the
total number of cold cases from 2010 to 2013 will be reinvestigated
provided that the appropriate fund is available. (Please see attached
Per Capita Cost).

The activities under the Conduct or Reinvestigation of Cold case
are the following:

a. Performance audit on cases reviewed and investigated;
b. Policies evaluation and formulation;
c. Training of investigators for cold case investigation; and
d. Applications/Conduct of Forensic Examination.

These activities will be measured by the corresponding
Performance Indicators:

a. No. of cases investigated;
b. No. of cases reviewed;
c. No. of policies reviewed and no. of trainings conducted; and
d. No. of examinations conducted.

Of these corresponding performance indicators, the over-all gauge
of the success of the program is the increase in crime clearance and
crime solution efficiency related to cold cases.

Aside from the success presented through numbers the change of
the perception of the people towards the PNP is more important. Once
a cold case is solved or cleared, that is one more citizen having a
renewed trust in the PNP. As the leaders in the DIDM would always
say once that citizen becomes victim of crime, especially if it involves
the loss of life of a loved one, the police officer who investigates, who
builds up the case, identifies the suspect, arrests him, and ensures his
conviction in court, becomes the guardian angel of that victim of crime.
He will forever be enshrined into the heart and mind of that grateful
family of the victim.

What should not be forgotten is that it is important that the victims
of cold cases and their families know that they are not forgotten. It is
vital that we keep in mind that we are here to serve the community,
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these cold cases are not just mere numerical statistics but real people
like ourselves.

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Strengthening Case Evidence and
Case Filing through Reinvestigation
of Cold Cases:
A Priority Program of the PNP


For FY 2015