Last week’s Trainer’s Training on Basic Child Protection, sponsored by the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Catanduanes, is a welcome development in the light of increasing cases of sex-related offenses committed against children especially those in school.
Conducted last Aug. 18, 2026 in partnership with the Catanduanes State University, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Regional Office V, and Fundacion de Religiosos para la Salud (FRS), the participants included members of the local police, guidance counselors, DepEd representatives, lawyers, media practitioners, social workers and law students.
As pointed out by Provincial Prosecutor Mary Jane L. Zantua, her office has noted a noticeable trend in sexual offenses targeting children in school, with 53 such cases handled by the OPP since 2022.
Of these criminal cases involving rape, violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act, and RA 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act, 30 have resulted in conviction of violators while 23 are still pending before the local courts.
Equipping frontliners with the necessary knowledge and strategies on how to handle incidents involving kids and helping them evade those who wish them harm is crucial in the campaign to protect children.
Equally vital is ensuring that those who violate children’s rights are prosecuted to the fullest extent and punished for their transgressions.
The call of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for local government units to invest in and utilize locally made Sexual Assault Investigation Kits in gathering DNA evidence would be of great help to the police and the Justice department.
According to the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) Natural Sciences Research Institute – DNA Analysis Laboratory (NSRI-DAL) and its partners Manila Health Tek Inc. (MTek), each of the SAI kits would cost P1,000 or less compared to the P7,000 cost of an imported one.
For the Catanduanes police, using such DNA evidence collection kits would be vast improvement in their investigation of sexual abuse cases.
A study conducted in Luzon in 2024 stated that more than 96 percent of criminal cases rely solely on testimonial evidence.
And it can be safely claimed that in this island province, the lack of corroborating witnesses in rape cases, particularly in instances where the victim is murdered, means the perpetrator/s go free and their victims’ families left to mourn their loss and their inability to get justice.
A Tribune query to the Catanduanes police on the availability and utilization of rape kits in police stations elicited information from the Women and Children Protection Desk that the stations are equipped with anatomical dolls as part of their child-friendly investigation tools.
But such dolls are only good for laying down the narrative of the offense from the child’s perspective and will not be crucial in establishing the guilt of the suspect.
The local police, however, follow procedures for the collection, preservation, and submission of biological evidence in accordance with the existing PNP operational procedures and forensic protocols, according to Provincial Director PCol. Virgilio R. Buena
The collection of biological specimens, where warranted, may be submitted to the appropriate PNP Forensic Group laboratory for DNA examination.
The entire PNP has only three DNA laboratories – one at the Forensic Group headquarters, one at its Mega Lab in Cebu City, and the third in Davao City.
If reports are to be believed, hundreds of sexual assault investigation kits collected from abused women and children remain untested for lack of funds for sample analysis as well as the limited number of DNA analysts.
The backlog has forced the PNP Forensic Group to prioritize the analysis of samples submitted from the various police stations, with Priority 1 granted to DNA samples from sensational cases and those ordered by the Courts.
Securing a positive DNA test result would not be enough as the Supreme Court rules on admissibility of DNA evidence provide that such must be relevant, obtained through lawful means, and tested using scientifically valid and reliable procedures.
The evidence would be assessed to consider factors such as the chain of custody, proper laboratory procedures, reliability of the testing method, qualification of the expert witness, and statistical probability of a DNA match or mismatch.
Assuming the LGUs indeed procure the SAI Kits, a procedure has to be crafted to determine who collects the evidence within 72 hours from the crime: trained LGU personnel at local hospitals and rural health units or the PNP forensic team from Camp Camacho.
There is a long way to go before DNA evidence becomes a reliable and fair means to obtain justice.
And it is sad to learn that since 2022, similar bills proposing the establishment of the Philippine National Forensic DNA Database has languished at the House of Representatives.