Philippines Criminal Records Checks
A criminal record, also called a police record, is a person’s criminal history established when charges are brought against someone. After the case is adjudicated, the record is still there reflecting the charge, and whether the individual was found guilty of any offence, or exonderated.
No employer would like to hire a person who has been convicted of theft, fraud, rape or any act of dishonesty and put the company’s credibility or brand at risk.
Performing a criminal record check is part of pre-employment background investigations that employers use to safeguard businesses and avoid any future complications or threat caused by hiring the wrong employee.
What information is included in a criminal record varies from country to country and even between jurisdictions within the same country.
However, some prevalent offences that need investigating are…
Murder
Mayhem
Rape
Kidnapping
Robbery
Extortion
Cheating
Forgery
Espionage
Breach of prison/breaking prison
And, the list continues.
Types Of Criminal Record Investigations
The Basic disclosure criminal record check. Not job specific. Instead, it checks for unspent convictions.
The Standard disclosure criminal record check. This background check includes conviction information for both spent and unspent. Very important for security industry and financial services sector.
The Enhanced disclosure criminal record check. This is a full criminal history background check (conviction, spent, unspent and general non-conviction data). Used mostly by police, government, and work involving small children or vulnerable adults.
Background Investigations Scenarios Around The World
Background investigations in Third World Countries including the Philippines background investigations, are extremely laborious and time-consuming compared to those in the Western World as distance is not measured in miles or kilometers, but time increments. Add to that, much more bureaucracy, lack of professionalism, apathy and sometimes, corruption issues to circumvent.
The reasons for these are:
- A Third World private investigator usually faces a lower level of professionalism, a greater degree of bureaucracy, apathy and occasionally, corruption issues to bypass.
- Many Third World government agency records, such as criminal records, are not generally as thorough or accurate as they would be in the Western World. For example, a criminal record may lack a middle name or initial, or even a birth date.
In such cases, the Philippines criminal records check investigations need to review all the background information supplied by the client, discard those names on file that are too young or too old to be the person of interest, and try to narrow down the potentials further.
The Philippines, for instance, is made up of over 7,000 islands and the different courts are spread throughout the archipelago. To conduct an investigation takes longer, requires more effort and expense, as well. - A criminal record can more easily be expunged within the electronic data through bribery. Many Third world countries keep internal information on file electronically, but the hard copy records may be closely guarded or secured and difficult to access. But depending only on electronic data could be faulty and may lead to an erroneous conclusions.
In several countries within Southeast Asia, for instance, upwards of at least 1% of the records may have been altered by those with prior criminal histories. This could mean that there are over a quarter of a million falsified records in some countries! - Similarly, education forgery checks can be an uphill task. Because there are areas within the major cities of some Third World countries where one can not only purchase a fraudulent diploma reflecting that it came from a prestigious local university, but can also have transcripts prepared in a tailor-made fashion as per the buyer’s requirements.
Money Vs Service. Choice Is Yours…
Some investigation agencies that do all their businesses electronically piggyback on some bigger and standard search companies. For example, one may get a lower level “electronic” Philippine criminal background investigation check done for under $250 from a Western World based “electronic” Background Investigation Company.
These Western World investigation companies secure such “electronic” data from their overseas independent and freelance investigators or agents without any guarantee that they have actually conducted any significant due diligence.
Since these freelance agents receive paltry fees for their efforts, it often happens that such freelance investigators could be “ghostwriting” negative results, without doing any authentic investigation in the first place.
What are you risking?
It could be a civil suit against your firm for failure to perform your duty of care!
Reputable Third World investigative companies are licensed by their respective governments and operate out of a registered office. They have a business to run, and employees to pay. It is only natural that because there everyday expenses are higher, they must charge more than the independent investigator.
If you are looking for real professional, reliable, and thorough background investigation services, you can safely consider OSI.
OSI has over 30 years of unblemished history within the Philippine Judicial System. It is not just “electronic” investigative background company, but has its own “boots on the ground” in the Philippines. Our results are thorough, professional and conducted in a proper and legal manner.
When you avail of the services of OSI, you not only get value for your money, but also peace of mind.
Click here to Contact us!