Australia to donate 5 forensics machines worth P200M to PNP

Australia will donate P200 million worth of forensics equipment to the Philippine National Police, which top officials said would upgrade their capability in post-terror attack investigations. PNP Crime Laboratory head Chief Supt. Ernesto Belen said he was informed by Australian ambassador Tony Hely that five forensics machines would arrive in August from Canberra. “The equipment will be used for chemical analysis of explosive material. It will be used for the counter-terrorism capacity-building project of the PNP and the NBI," Belen said. Australian forensics expects have trained 25 PNP crime laboratory personnel on post-blast investigation and disaster victim identification in the past two years. Three months ago, the PNP also received from Australia P2 million worth of disaster victim identification equipment package. Belen said the PNP Crime Laboratory is actively involved in training to make up for the lack of equipment, which he said were mostly donated by foreign allies, including a P400-million automated fingerprint identification system from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). -GMANews.TV