US OFFERS FINGERPRINTING SYSTEM TO HELP RP FIGHT DRUGS

The United States government has offered the Philippines an automatic
fingerprinting system worth $400,000 or P22.4 million as part of its
campaign against illegal drugs.

With the system, law enforcers will be able to identify or enhance
fingerprints lifted from a crime scene with just a click of the mouse,
said lawyer Ricardo Diaz, chief of the National Bureau of
Investigation - International Police (NBI-Interpol) Division.

Diaz said the bureau has already signified its willingness to host the
automatic fingerprinting system to be donated by the US State Department.

"It's already in the works," he said.

The bureau currently has at least 25 million specimen signatures taken
from NBI clearance applicants and fingerprints lifted from crime scenes.

Diaz said with this technology, investigators will just have the
prints lifted from a crime scene scanned and then compare them with
fingerprints recorded in the system.

"It will take some seconds just like in some crime scene investigation
on television, with the cost to be shouldered by the US government,"
he added.

Diaz noted that when the US State Department made the offer, it said
the system needs a better base and protected installation, with a
building solely occupied by the automatic fingerprinting system.

"Since we do not have a separate building to offer, the bureau made
some re-arrangement in the bureau to accommodate the technology," he
said.

Diaz said the system will be a great help for local law enforcers.

He added that the relocation of the division issuing clearances for
employment was part of the rearrangement. The NBI clearance center is
now located on Carriedo street in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Each applicant
has to pay P20 before entering the center.

Diaz said the plan is to place the equipment for fingerprinting at the
third floor of the NBI building. Offices now at the third floor - that
of NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco and divisions involved in various
investigations - will be transferred to the fifth floor.

The offices at the fifth floor will be transferred to the ground
floor, previously vacated by the NBI's clearance division.