JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday said the department found possible criminal liability among 154 police officers in the 52 drug cases it reviewed from the files submitted by the PNP where deaths occurred.
“The DOJ noted that based on the facts gathered by the PNP-IAS, the police officers involved in these cases were not only administratively liable, existing evidence pointed to their possible criminal liability as well,” Guevarra said.
“The DOJ thus informed the PNP that these cases will be endorsed to the NBI for case build-up and filing of criminal complaints if warranted by the evidence,” he said, adding the DOJ and NBI will meet on October 5 to discuss this.
He said that if the evidence from the PNP-IAS probe is enough, the NBI will immediately file the case in court.
“If the NBI thinks that more evidence will be needed, they will further investigate and build up the case,” he said.
He said the DOJ, through the NBI, and the PNP, will institutionalize cooperation in investigating similar cases in the future, so that administrative and criminal liabilities, if any, arising from the conduct of anti-drug operations are determined simultaneously.
“The DOJ and the PNP are in the belief that the war against drugs could be won without the use of excessive force and unnecessary loss of lives,” he added.
DOJ Undersecretary Adrian Sugay later clarified that of the 52 cases reviewed, one is not drug related and one did not result in death.
“One hundred fifty-four total police personnel involved. One hundred fifty-three if we do not include the case which is not drug related,” Sugay explained.
Guevarra also said the DOJ will now focus its attention on the nearly 100 drug cases across the country that are either pending preliminary investigation or court trial involving law enforcers charged with or accused of violating the law in the conduct of the anti-drug war.
Asked if the DOJ will release its findings to the public, Guevarra said the “report itself is a confidential memo to the President.”
“But we are informing the public of its contents, just as we did with the initial report,” he said, adding they will also engage with the Commission on Human Rights.
“We will discuss this with the CHR,” he said.
