ARSON LABORATORY SECTION
ANNUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORT
CY 2010

ON ADMINISTRATION

 The Arson Laboratory Section Chief had forwarded Memorandum Circular Nr. 2010-LAB-01 entitled: “Guidelines in the Collection, Labeling, Preservation, Chain of Custody and Submission of Physical Evidence” at the Fire Laboratory which was approved by the Acting Chief, BFP on February 5, 2010 and subsequently disseminated to all Offices of the Regional Directors (ORD) regionwide. The primary goal of the guidelines is to standardize the collection, preservation and chain of custody of the evidence prior to the endorsement to the laboratory. Moreover, the said guidelines provide technical framework, utilizing internationally accepted methods in the preservation, transport and maintenance of chain of custody of evidence as well as the labeling or sealing of collected evidence. The fire/arson investigators shall adopt the formatted uniform evidence submission forms as pre-requisite to the laboratory examination.

ON OPERATION

A total number of requests for laboratory examination of collected evidence from January 1 to November 31, 2010 submitted by various BFP field offices nationwide totaled to three hundred sixty three (363). These laboratory requests were categorized as follows: forensic Chemistry Examination Requests (Total Nr: 252); electrical Analysis Requests (Total Nr:107); and finger Print Analysis Requests (Total Nr: 4)