CAMP DANGWA, Benguet – Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. inaugurated the new four-story building of the Regional Forensic Unit-Cordillera here on Thursday, Feb. 16.
Standing on a 240-square meter land, this is the first state-of-the-art PNP building in the country with an elevator and cost P40 million to build by the Department of Public Works and Highways- Cordillera under the Tatag ng Imprastraktura para sa Kapayapaan at Seguridad (TIKAS) Convergence Program.
Azurin thanked the DPWH for the modern design of police buildings not only in the Cordillera but also in other parts of the country.
"There is a lot of building already done, in Police Regional Police-1, it was also provided by the DPWH. I thank you that the DPWH is helping us to augment our budget when it comes to the construction of our buildings, because every year, we will allocate P100 million to construct municipal police stations and now that the DPWH is here, our infrastructure programs are facilitated," said Azurin.
Azurin said the forensics unit is a major part of the police and it is time for them to have good offices with modern equipment. These equipment will enable them to locally process forensic examination services and no longer bring them to the national headquarters in Quezon City.
"Since it's a modern office and the first with an elevator, it's only right that we modernize its equipment as well. It will be our priority at the national headquarters to discuss the equipment so that funds can be provided immediately," Azurin added.
Among the equipment envisioned to be placed at the new facility are deoxyribonucleic acid profile examination, those that will allow comparison of firearms ballistics, polygraph machine, and computerized facial composite to generate facial drawing of suspects.
Azurin thanked Baguio City Rep. Eric Yap, Benguet Gov. Melchor Diclas, and other stakeholders for continuing to support the efforts of the Police Regional Office-Cordillera.