By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/ PNA
MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is set to implement an automated inventory of seized pieces of evidence from anti-drugs operations through the use of barcodes.
The PDEA Evidence Inventory and Information System (PEIIS) will be put in place in forensic laboratories of the agency’s national and regional offices.
“The PEIIS aims to provide additional security features and preserve the integrity and evidentiary value of seized drug evidence received in its custody during legitimate anti-drug operations. The system also lays a framework in achieving an organized data collection program for speedy and accurate documentation and accounting of evidence,” PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said in a statement Thursday.
The PEIIS, Aquino said, will address questions on the integrity of drug evidence, issues on recycling, and the manner of safekeeping, quantity and destruction of evidence.
“PEIIS is only a part of our continuing capability enhancement program for safekeeping of drug evidence. As the lead agency in the country’s anti-drug campaign, the integrity of PDEA in safekeeping of all pieces of drug evidence is of paramount importance,” the PDEA chief said.
The PDEA Laboratory Service and Information and Technology Management Division (ITMD) of its Plans and Operations Service (POS) are the driving forces behind the PEIIS project, which started in July 2017 and was completed on January 31.
According to Aquino, chief chemists and evidence custodians of laboratory facilities in 17 PDEA Regional Offices across the country are presently undergoing three-day familiarization training under Filmetrics Corporation, the same company that developed the online drug inventory system.
“This is the first time in the history of the country that a system was developed to barcode confiscated drug evidence. This makes PDEA the first government agency to utilize such system of tagging of evidence,” he noted.
