Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

H.B. No, 00

Introduced by HONORABLE JUAN EDGARDO “SONNY” M. ANGARA

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The country has witnessed the escalation of crimes with syndicates habitually
committing crimes to the detriment of peace and order and the public welfare. Individuals and
families have been victimized and brutalized in heinous crimes, with criminals committing them
with impunity due to their political connections. To aggravate the situation, law enforcement
personnel who are supposed to be protectors of the people take advantage of their positions
also in the pursuit of lawless undertakings.

The identification of the criminal elements which are often out in the open is therefore
essential for crime eradication. Law enforcement could quickly resolve cases being investigated
if they have immediate access to updated criminal records. This can be done if there is a
national crime database, which will therefore not only be used for obtaining the necessary job or
police clearances.

This bill seeks to establish a national crime database that will be useful in the elimination
of crime and criminal elements.

Approval of this bill is earnestly sought.

EDGARDO “SONNY” M. ANGARA
Represenfative
Lone District, Province of Aurora


FIFTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE )
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES )
First Regular Session )
H.B.No, 00@

Introduced by Honorable JUAN EDGARDO “SONNY” M. ANGARA

AN ACT
ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL CRIME DATABASE

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in

Congress assembled:

Act

SECTION 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the “National Crime Database

SEC. 2. Purposes. The purposes of this Act are to:
a) create a complete and accurate national criminal record database that is an essential
element in fighting crime; and

b) require the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to
provide information and records for the National Identification Index and the National
Fingerprint File and to provide criminal-history records, in a timely fashion, to
criminal-history record repositories and for non-criminal justice purposes, to update
existing criminal record systems that are currently

©) outdated and contain incomplete or incorrect information; and

d) make accessible detailed databases of criminal-history records, including arrests and
dispositions. :

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. As used in this Act:

a) “Crime database officer” means, an official so designated by the Director of the NBI
as the chief administrator of the region's criminal-history record repository or a
designee who is a regular full-time employee of that repository.

b) “Criminat-history records" means information collected by criminal-justice agencies
on individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests,
detentions, indictments, or other formal criminal charges, and any disposition arising
there from, including acquittal, sentencing, correctional supervision, or release, The
term does not include identification information such as fingerprint records if such

4


d)

e)

9)

h)

i

k)

information does not indicate involvement of the individual with the criminal justice

system.

“Criminal-history record repository” means the agency designated by the appropriate
executive official or the legislature to perform centralized recordkeeping functions for
criminal-history records and services in the State.

"Criminal justice” encompasses any of the following activities: detection,
apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post-trial release, prosecution,
adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminal
offenders. The administration of criminal justice shall include criminal identification
acti

ties and the collection, storage, and dissemination of criminal history records.

“Criminal-justice agency" means (1) Courts; (2) a governmental agency or any
subunit thereof which performs the administration of criminal justice pursuant to a
stature or executive order, and which allocates a substantial part of its annual budget
to the administration of criminal justice.

“Criminaljustice services’ means services provided by the NBI to criminal-justice
agencies in response to a request for information about a particular individual or as
an update to information previously provided for criminal justice purposes.

“Direct access" means access to the National Identification Index by computer
terminal or other automated means not requiring the assistance of or intervention by
any other party or agency.

“NBI" means the National Bureau of Investigation
“PNP means the Philippine National Police

“Interregional Identification Index System” or “111 System” means the system for the
storage of criminal-history records and includes the National Identification Index, the
National Fingerprint File and, the criminal-history record repositories of the NBI, the
PNP, the Courts, and other criminal justice agencies.

“National Fingerprint File” means a database of fingerprints, or other uniquely
personal identifying information, about an arrested or charged individual maintained
by the NBI to provide positive identification of record subjects indexed in the 111
System.


1) “National Identification Index" means an index maintained by the NBI consisting of
names, identifying numbers, and other descriptive information relating to fecord
subjects about whom there are criminal-history records in the 111 System

m) “National indices” means the National Identification Index and the National
Fingerprint File.

n) “Non-criminal-justice purposes” means uses of the criminal-history record for crime
prevention and other legitimate law enforcement purposes authorized by federal or
state law including, but not limited to, employment suitability or licensing
determinations, immigration and naturalization matters, and national security

clearances.

©) “Positive identification” means a determination, based upon a comparison of
fingerprints or other equally reliable biometric identification techniques, that the
subject of a record search is the person as the subject of a criminal-history record or
records indexed in the 111 System.

p) "Regional unit means the NBI or PNP regional units covering the 14 geographical
regions of the Philippines, unless otherwise specified.

q) “NBI National Office" means the main office which shall have control over the
national indices of the national crime database.

SEC, 4. Establishment of National Crime Database Council.

a) There is hereby established a National Crime Database Council which shall have the
authority to promulgate rules and procedures governing the use of the Ill System for
criminal-justice and non-criminal-justice purposes. The Council shall be located, for
administrative purposes, within the NBI main office. The Council shall be organized
and its first meeting held as soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act.

b) The Council shall consist of 8 members:

1) Director of the National Bureau of Investigation

2) Secretary of Justice

3) Secretary of Interior and Local Government

4) Court Administrator

5) Chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force

6) Head of the Crime Prevention and Coordination Service of the National Police
Commission

7) Director of the Philippine National Police Computer Center

3


8) Representative of a non-governmental organization involved in crime prevention

and eradication.

a. The Chairman of the Council shall be a member of and elected by the
members of the Council. The Chairman shall serve a two-year term and
may be re-elected to only one additional two-year term.

b. The Council shall meet at least once a year. Meetings shall be open to the
public. Appropriate prior public notices shall be provided.

¢. The Council shall have authority to request from the NBU such reports,
studies, statistics, or other information or materials as it finds necessary to
enable it to perform its duties under this Act. The NBI, to the extent
authorized by law, may provide such assistance or information.

d. The Chairman may establish technical or other committees as necessary
and may prescribe their membership, responsibilities, and duration.

SEC, 5. Development of a Plan for Establishing a National Crime Database.

In general - Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the National
Crime Database Council, in coordination with other criminal-justice agencies, and after
consultation with the different regional directors of both the National Bureau of Investigation and
the Philippine National Police, shall develop a plan on how to create a national crime database,
Using the interregional identification index system or 111 system, to which the criminal justice
agencies shall have direct access. :

Objective - The objective of the plan developed under paragraph (1) shall be to establish
a national crime database, which shall include the criminal history records, with samples of
fingerprints, and the disposition of cases, if any. The existing database of criminal history
records being used for employment or travel clearances shall be updated and integrated with
proposed national crime database.

SEC. 6. Responsibilities of Criminal Justice Agencies.
(a) NBI Responsibilities !

1. The NBI Director shall appoint a NBI Crime Database Officer who wil

a) Have responsibility for administering the provisions of this Act within the NBI
and criminal justice agency community.

b) Ensure that any provisions and rules, procedures, and standards established
under this Act are complied with; and

c) Regulate the use of records received by means of the Ill System from other
criminal justice agencies when such records are supplied by the NBI directly
to other criminal justice agencies.

4


1) The NBI will provide to criminal justice agencies and to regional criminal-
history record repositories, criminal-history records maintained. in its
database for non-criminal-justice purposes described in Section 3,
paragraph (n),

2) The NBI will provide a telecommunications network and maintain
centralized facilities for the exchange of criminal-history records for both
criminaljustice and non-criminal-justice purposes described in Section 3,
paragraphs (d) and (n). The NBI will ensure that the exchange of these
records for criminal-justice purposes has priority over exchange for non-
criminal-justice purposes.

3) The NBI will modify or enter into user agreements with regional criminal-
history record repositories to require them to establish record-request
procedures conforming to those prescribed in this Act.

(b) Responsibilities of the NBI and PNP regional units

Each regional unit shall appoint a crime database officer who will:

a. have responsibility for administering the provisions of this Act within that region;

b. ensure that provisions and rules, procedures, and standards established under
this Act and other forthcoming implementing rules are complied within the region;
and

¢. regulate the in-region use of records received by means of the Ill System from
the NBI National Office or from other criminal justice agencies.

2. Each regional criminal-history record repository will:

a) provide information and records for the National Identification Index and the
National Fingerprint File; and

b) provide the region's 111 System-indexed criminal-history records for non-criminal
justice purposes described in Section 3, paragraph (n); and ‘

©) be managed by the regional NBI unit.

3. Each regional unit will participate in the National Fingerprint File.

4. Each regional unit will provide and maintain telecommunications links and

related equipment necessary to support the services set forth in this Act.

(©) The Courts

1) The courts will provide the data conceming the disposition of cases, to be
5


2) The courts will provide information as to the status of pending cases included in
criminal history records.

(a) Compliance with Ill System Standards,

In carrying out their responsibilities under the Act, criminal justice agencies and the NBI
will comply with system rules, procedures, and standards duly established under this Act and
any implementing rules or regulation issued by the National Crime Database Council,
concerning record dissemination and use, response time, data quality, system security, and
other aspects of system operation.

(d) Maintenance of Record Services

1) Use of the Ill System for non-criminal-justice purposes authorized in this Act shall
be managed so as not to diminish the level of service provided in support of
criminal-justice purposes.

2) Administration of the provisions of this Act shall not reduce the level of service
available to authorized non-criminal-justice users on the effective date of this Act

SEC. 7. Authorized Record Disclosures.

a. To the extent authorized by our laws which authorize national indices checks, the
NBI National Office criminal-history record repository will provide on request
criminal-history records to regional criminal-history record repositories for non-
criminal justice purposes.

b. The NBI National Office criminal-history record repository and regional criminal
history record repositories will provide criminal-history records to criminal-justice
agencies and other government or nongovernmental agencies for non-criminal
justice purposes allowed by our laws, which authorize national indices checks.

¢. Records obtained under this Act may be used only for the official purposes for
which they were requested. Implementing rules and regulations shall be issued,
that shall establish procedures and measures consistent with the provisions of
this Act, to ensure that records are used only by authorized officials for
authorized purposes and to require that subsequent record checks are requested
to obtain current information whenever a new need arises. These procedures
must ensure that record entries that may not legally be used for a particular non-
criminal-justice purpose will be deleted from the response and, if no information
authorized for release remains, an appropriate "no record" response will be
communicated to the requesting official.


SEC. 8. Record-Request Procedures.

a. Applicant fingerprints or other approved forms of positive identification will be
submitted with all requests for criminal-history record checks for non-criminal
justice purposes.

b. Requests for criminal-history record checks utilizing the National Indices made
under any law shall be submitted through that regional criminal-history records
repository. A regional criminal-history record repository will process interregional
requests for non-criminal-justice purposes through the national indices only if
such requests are transmitted through another regional criminal history record
repository or the NBI National Office.

c. Request for criminal-history record checks utilizing the National Indices made
under any law shall be submitted through the NBI National Office or, if the
repository consents to process fingerprint submissions, through the repository in
the region in which such requests originated. Direct access to the National
Identification Index by entities other than the NBI National Office and regional
criminal-history records repositories shall not be permitted for non-criminal justice
purposes.

d. The NBI National Office and the regional criminathistory record repository may
charge fees for handling requests involving fingerprint processing for non-
criminal-justice purposes. No fees will be charges, however, for providing
criminal history records in response to an electronic request for a record that
does not involve a request to process fingerprints.

e. If a regional repository cannot positively identify the subject of a record request
made for non-criminal-ustice purposes, then the request, together with
fingerprints or other approved identifying information, will be forwarded to the NBI
National Office for a search of the national indices. If the NBI positively identify
the subject as having a 111 System-indexed record or records, then the NBI will
80 advise the regional repository that submitted the request. The repository will
then be entitled to obtain the additional criminal-history record information from
the NBI or other regional repositories

SEC. 9. Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation

Approved,