Frances Angelie Nacepo

Forensic Science and its cardinal role in criminal investigations can be aptly summarized
in the words of Fiction Writer, Chuck Palahniuk.

“Everything is a self-portrait. A diary. Your whole drug history’s in a strand of your

hair. Your fingernails. The forensic details. The lining of your stomach is a document. The
calluses on your hand tell all your secrets. Your teeth give you away. Your accent. The wrinkles
around your mouth and eyes. Everything you do shows your hand.”

Over the years, the forensic Science has made dramatic scientific breakthrough on the
role and impact of scientific evidence in criminal case processing. Unliked the media’s
romanticized portrayal of forensic medicine as a profession every ready to solve crimes at a
moment’s notice, the reality is quite different. This is evident on the videos I have watched in our
Legal Medicine subject. There is a total of five videos entitles: “Forensic Medicine Video”,
“Branches of Forensic Medicine”, “Forensic Pathologist”, “Forensic Pathologist as Expert
Witness”, and lastly “Forensics and Pandemics”.

The first video is about Forensic Medicine entitled: “Forensic Medicine and Crime Lab:
Detectives in Medicine! (UST Med)” is more of a vlog video rather than a documentary video
which is good since it is interesting and not boring. The video talks about the Medico-Legal
System in the Philippines, how it works and its importance. The first discussion on the video is
the crime lab team in the Philippine National Police and why should one become part of the
team. According the Police interviewed in the video, the crime lab is one of the interesting units
of the Philippine National Police. The men and women of the Philippine National Police Crime
Laboratory are committed to the vision of a professional, dynamic, and motivated forensic
service providing quality scientific investigation and working in partnership with the responsive
pillars of the Criminal Justice System towards the attainment of equality and justice. Their
mission is to provide scientific investigation services and other technical support to the
Philippine National Police offices and other agencies through fieldwork, scene of crime
operations, forensic laboratory service, criminalistics training and research. In the video,
someone from the Medico-legal department named Police Inspector Jasmine Valbuena was
interviewed who explained what does a medico-legal officer do. According the Police Inspector
Jasmine Valbuena, if you become a medico-legal officer, it is, first and foremost, a service. It is
where you get paid and at the same time give service. When doing court hearings and conducting
examinations, it goes a long way because when we get someone convicted through the forensic
examinations, it also means that we get to prevent another crime from happening again. In
joining the Medico legal team, you should not only think of the monetary benefits that you can
get but also the contribution and services that you provide. Police Inspector Jasmine Valbuena
was also asked why did she join the medico legal team which she answered that she become
interested back then in the 1998 when the CSI was the hype that time and then she forgot about it
and then she took up Medicine where she jokingly said that you don’t have a life when you are in
Medicine, and when she took the oath taking for passing the Med board exam, the Crime Lab
member was giving out flyers at that time and when she saw it, it reminded her of the time she
was interested in Forensic Science so she applied and waited until she got in. To be a member of
the Medico-legal team, first you can be a GP, if you are a Police Commission Officer you can
apply by bilateral entry where you train for one year in the National Police College and then you
get to have at least half a year of Medico-legal basic course and after that you can have a career
in forensic medicine. Police Inspector Jasmine Valbuena also gave an aspirational speech for
those who aspire to take up Medico-legal officer. After watching the video, I may not have
understood how Medico-Legal really works, but I learned the importance of being an officer in
such field.

The second video is about the Branches of Forensic Medicine entitled: “Failon Ngayon:
Forensic Science School”. I was really excited because Failon Ngayon is one of my favorite TV
shows. In the video, Forensic Pathology expert Dr. Raquel Del Rosario-Fortun discussed the
different branches of forensic science that are used by authorities in solving crimes. Philippine
National Police chief Dir. Gen. Oscar Albayalde talked about the importance of forensics. Misha
Rscanilla, who just finished a short course on forensics, talked about her passion for crime
solving, and shared how her forensic helped deepened her understanding on how crimes are
solved.

Those who employ forensic science solve crimes by using all of the available information
about, and evidence from, a crime scene in order to determine who committed it. Forensic
scientists from different fields take certain pieces of evidence and make conclusions that form a
full picture of what happened at a crime scene. This information is then used by the police and
prosecutors to bring a criminal to justice.

With the raising in number of criminal cases, it is where the forensic officers enter, but
sadly, there are only a few numbers of schools who offer Forensic Science courses. According to
Dr. Raquel Del Rosario-Fortun, The Philippines is a bit behind compared to the other Asian
countries in the study of Forensic Science. We are only in the phase of awareness, in the stage
where we accept the reality that we are lacking in education and must hurry to get to the level of
education with the other countries. In the Philippines, Forensic Science Program is new and not
widely known. And even though we can go and set up a school offering Forensic Science
courses, the country lacks the facilities and equipment in the study. In this video, I learned how
the Philippines is lacking behind in the study of Forensic Science compared to the other Asian
countries.

The third video is about Forensic Pathologist entitled: “Seeing Dead People: Forensic
Patholigist Dr. Raquel Fortun” and the fourth video is about “Forensic Pathologist as Expert
Witness” entitled: “The Forensic Pathologist as Expert Witness: Raquel Fortun”. In these two
videos, we encounter Dr. Raquel Fortun, the first Filipina forensic pathologist, who shares how
her “High threshold for pandidiri” has made her a great fit for her dream job. Having worked in
several cases both nationally and internationally, Dr. Raquel Fortun on the fourth video talked
about another aspect of her work: as an expert witness and why it’s more fun in the Philippine
courts.

But what is a Forensic Pathology and what does a Forensic Pathologist do?

Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by

examining a corpse. A post mortem is performed by a medical examiner, usually during the
investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some jurisdictions. Coroners and
medical examiners are also frequently asked to confirm the identity of a corpse. Forensic
pathology is an application of medical jurisprudence. A forensic pathologist is a medical doctor
who has completed training in anatomical pathology and has subsequently specialized in forensic
pathology. The requirements for becoming a "fully qualified" forensic pathologist vary from
country to country. Some of the different requirements are discussed below.
 The forensic pathologist performs autopsies/postmortem examinations to determine the
cause of death. The autopsy report contains an opinion about the following:

The pathological process, injury, or disease that directly results in or initiates a series of
events that lead to a person's death (also called the mechanism of death), such as a bullet wound
to the head, exsanguination caused by a stab wound, manual or ligature strangulation, myocardial
infarction resulting from coronary artery disease, etc.)

The forensic pathologist examines and documents wounds and injuries, at autopsy, at the
scene of a crime and occasionally in a clinical setting, such as rape investigation or deaths in
custody.

Forensic pathologists collect and examine tissue specimens under the microscope
(histology) to identify the presence or absence of natural disease and other microscopic findings
such as asbestos bodies in the lungs or gunpowder particles around a gunshot wound.

In the videos, Forensic Pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun said that she always cleaned the
fish her mother Amelia bought. It was a chore she loved doing. Little did the young Raquel
Barros Del Rosario know she was preparing for a future as Dr. Raquel B. Del Rosario-Fortun,
the first Filipino woman forensic pathologist. “Evisceration! That’s what it was,” she said with a
knowing smile, connecting that childhood task with disemboweling bodies during autopsies. She
had always wanted to become a doctor despite coming from a clan of lawyers and admitted that
her father Benjamin was “a bit disappointed.”

It was her doting aunt, Dr. Lourdes Del Rosario, who inspired Raquel. Her photo is the
only one on Raquel’s desk at the Department of Pathology chairperson’s office, UP Manila
College of Medicine (UPCM). “Because of her, I associated fun with being a doctor.” Even
going with her to a hospital in Tondo, Raquel wasn’t fazed. “That hospital smell didn’t bother
me. I saw all these doctors in white coats like her, respected by everyone. I thought it was so
cool.”. Going into college, she wanted something that could be a pre-med degree but could also
guarantee employment if she couldn’t pursue medicine because it was expensive.

She enrolled in the UP Diliman (UPD) BS Psychology program in 1979 after graduating
from the UP Integrated School. Three years on, she felt certain she wanted to be a doctor. She
“wanted to shift to a pre-med program focused on the sciences like Biology or Zoology,” but
chose to be more practical and finished psychology.

Raquel wasn’t accepted to UPCM, so she went to the University of the East Ramon
Magsaysay (UERM) College of Medicine, graduating in 1987 and completing post-internship in
1988. She began residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology in 1989 at UPCM, where
she was also made instructor.

While the pull of medicine was stronger, law was also Raquel’s interest. She saw the
possibility of mixing both through Dr. Pedro Solis, a lawyer-doctor and her UERM Legal
Medicine professor.

She took and passed the law aptitude exam of the UPD College of Law (UP Law) twice,
in 1989 and 1993. UPCM just advised against the pursuit in 1989 because it was her first year of
residency. “Passing twice, I thought I might have an aptitude for law after all.”

Raquel laughed when recounting her law experience. “I quit! After 10 days, maybe 2
weeks, I just quit! This is so embarrassing, but that’s what happened. Law wasn’t for me.” She
found it “too abstract, the opposite of medicine’s tangible and concrete.” She may have quit, but
more than ten years later, she was invited by UP Law to teach. “I believe some eyebrows were
raised, that I, a non-lawyer, was teaching a course at UP Law.”

She learned about forensic pathology from one of her seniors at the department. “I
realized it was probably what I was looking for: the field of medicine, particularly pathology,
applied to law. The tangible applied to the abstract.”

Raquel went to Seattle, Washington in 1994 to train at the King County Medical
Examiner’s (ME) Office. “My first day there, I fell in love with forensic pathology. That was it. I
knew it was the field I was meant to be in.” She had the stomach for it, too—dead bodies,
whether fresh or decomposing, with maggots or reduced to skeletal remains.

Forensic pathology is a lucrative field and Raquel could be earning so much more if she
worked abroad, in full practice, and did part-time teaching. “My fate is here, teaching full-time
as a UP professor and doing cases on the side,” she said. “I’m ten years from retirement.”
 She has tried working outside, where the monthly pay was twice her teacher’s annual
salary. “But I wasn’t happy. I realized it wasn’t about the money. UP has an environment that’s
hard to find elsewhere. I am free to speak my mind. The students are very intelligent. The
interaction with my colleagues is great.”

As for the future of forensic experts and forensic pathology in the Philippines, she hopes
that coming generations will have an easier time; that funds for material and human resources
would be given to support a UPM forensic pathology fellowship program; that the UP Board of
Regents-approved establishment of the Forensic Science Institute in 1999 would materialize; and
that a death investigation system fully supported by the state, independent of law enforcement,
free from politics, unbiased, and unafraid to expose the truth would finally exist.

The fifth and last video is about Forensics and Pandemics entitled:” Forensic and
Pandemics Concepts, Challenges, and Planning Ahead”. It is a webinar organized by the
University of the Philippines. At the start of the year, no one could have seen that the whole
world would be grappled by an unknown disease that will claim lives and strike livelihoods.
Now we are forced to swiftly transmission to a new normal far from tradition that we had
enjoyed for a long time. The Pandemic also shows the fragile health system of the Philippines,
we are faced with various health care concerns in the past year from the rising cases of Malaria,
to Polio, and now we have to deal with the new strain of Coronavirus. Our health care system is
continuously being challenged to seek solutions. This series tackles the relevance of Forensic
Science in the management of public health currently faced by the country due to the Covid 19
Pandemic. This series also aims for participants to learn about forensic science, challenges in
data security, the management of the dead, and use of forensic science in public health planning.