VILLAR SUGGESTS NOVEL WAYS OF SOLVING CRIMES
Including the creation of a crime database and a reward system

Senator Manny Villar, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, says that with the escalation of crimes, there is an urgent need to be not just more vigilant and aggressive but also more efficient and innovative in combating criminality.

Villar, President of the Nacionalista Party cites, The criminals are becoming more aggressive and cunning. They also employ more advanced strategies and weaponry. Thus, crime-busters should always outthink and outsmart them. In order to do this, police authorities need technical support as well as the general publics full cooperation.

To this end, Villar filed two bills in the Senate that aim to significantly help in the fight against crime. Senate Bill 599 seeks to provide an effective method to identify and subdue lawbreakers by providing for a uniform reward system in the campaign against crime and lawlessness. Senate Bill 690 seeks to establish a national crime database considering that identification of criminal elements is very essential to crime eradication.

A comprehensive and nation-wide database of criminals would truly help our policemen in monitoring and apprehending criminal elements. How can we run after our enemies if we dont know them? Meanwhile, rewarding whistleblowers would entice people to report crimes and cooperate with police authorities, cites Villar, President of Nacionalista Party.

Earlier, Villar expressed alarm over a recently released survey by Pulse Asia that eight out of 10 Filipinos who have been victimized by criminals did not report the incidents and out of 180 victims, only 20% sought help from the police. According to Villar, If not all people were reporting crime, then the crime rates or criminal records that are being published cannot be considered accurate.

Under Villars Senate Bill 599, whistle-blowers or government informers who have knowledge of frauds or violations of any national or local law who submit a sworn statement or furnish information leading to the arrest of apprehension of a fugitive or wanted criminal shall be entitled to receive a compensation or reward.

Meanwhile, Villars Senate Bill 690 requires the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to provide information and records for the National Identification Index and the National Fingerprint File and to provide criminal history records to criminal history record repositories and for non-criminal justice purposes to update existing criminal record systems that may be outdated already or incomplete.