Armed Forces of the Philippines to Acquire Helmet / Body Camera for its Ground Forces

The Armed Forces of the Philippines is to acquire body cameras to be used by the ground forces is future wars or armed engagement against terrorist, insurgencies and other state enemies in either jungle or urban like Marawi City battleground.

According to AFP spokesman Major General Restituto Padilla, he said that with the Marawi War which lasted five months, media members often requested for live action footage of the engagements against the enemy.

“During the height of the Marawi conflict, members of the media often requested copies of live action footage. So that’s why military commanders requested for Go Pro body cameras which they put on their helmets or in their uniforms while they are conducting operations so they can record it,” Padilla said..

“So we decided to acquire it because it’s best for us to document and study previous engagements,” he said.

M Gen Padilla said that the newly acquired body cameras would also be used by training units in future exercises especially in military operations in urban terrain. It can be remembered that the first used of the body camera is during the rescue of a wounded soldier that was executed in the main battle area inside Marawi City.

The AFP spokesperson, at the same time, said that body cameras can also be used for future reference in case there are complaints against soldier engaged in armed confrontation.

“Bukod dun, malaking bagay ito sa pagsasalin ng mga natutunan sa mga nangyaring pangyayari ng sa ganoon iyung mga tropa natin na susunod may makukuha or mapupulot silang aral ng maiwasan na ang mga pagkakamaling nagawa na natin,” he said.

Padilla said in case no money has been allocated to buy body cameras in the Department of National Defense (DND) budget for 2018, there is what they call “Request to Reprogram Funds”.

“Kung sakaling may na-save sa mga bidding ng kagamitan dahil ang nakuhang bid ay mas mababa, iyung natitira doon na mga savings maaari mo i-request na pambili ng mga ganitong klaseng kagamitan,” Padilla said.

“Mura lang naman ito (This [body camera] is cheap),” he added.