By Jocelyn Reyes and Ashzel Hachero
PRESIDENT Duterte on Monday said the government cannot release all records of the administration’s war on drugs because some of them are confidential and may compromise national security.
The President, during his Talk to the People address, said there are some documents that pertain to ongoing investigations and operations related to illegal drugs while there are those that contain references to personalities and information that are confidential, like documents related to the New People’s Army (NPA).
“There are public documents that can be shown in public at large and anybody who is interested can get it. But these confidential documents, you cannot look at it” Duterte said.
“We can’t give everything. You can go into a query of how the battle was fought, how the gunfire started, but what prompted the police or military to go into this operation based on their reports and collated dossier, you can’t meddle with that,” said Duterte, who vowed to rid the country of illegal drugs when he ran for president in 2016.
Reacting to Duterte’s statement yesterday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said they will “play it by the ears,” adding Duterte’s statement does not necessarily mean the non-disclosure of documents due to national security concerns.
“I actually did not hear it exactly how he said it but my understanding of what the President has been meaning is in the light on the ongoing cooperation between the DOJ and the PNP, a proper concern should be given to security matters. In other words, not necessarily related to the review of these case files, it is not necessarily the one that the President is referring to,” Guevarra said in an online press briefing with Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano and PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar after the signing of a joint memorandum circular on violations of health quarantine protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As far as I’m concerned these are criminal matters, more of a criminal nature than a national security concern. So, I suppose that the President really meant that in the general cooperation between the PNP and the DOJ, concerns about national security should be properly addressed,” Guevarra added.
Last week, Guevarra said Eleazar had agreed to share records of 61 cases being investigated by the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) as part of the ongoing DOJ-led review on the campaign against illegal drugs.
Reminded about the 2018 Supreme Court resolution penned by then Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio ordering the government to yield its records on deaths related to the drug war amid the petitions against the constitutionality of “Oplan Tokhang,” Guevarra said they will be more careful in examining the drug war records if they involve national security.
“Yes, there was a SC declaration already but we will play it by the ears. We will be more careful when the DOJ and the PNP examine all these records. Make it a point to determine if there are national security concerns involved in each case, and if there is none, then we will do so in accordance with our mandate. But we will take note of the President’s concerns as we examine each and every case,” Guevarra said.
Meanwhile, the PNP is withholding, for now, eight of the 61 case folders on drug operations where policemen have been found to have committed lapses.
“At least 53 cases initially will be forwarded to the DOJ, these are cases where we found administrative lapses, these were already decided,” Eleazar said in a press briefing.
Eleazar said two of the 61 eight cases are still pending while six others are under appeal before the National Appellate Board of the National Police Commission.
“We are in the process of authenticating the 53 cases and will be turned over or copies will be furnished to the DOJ for their further review,” said Eleazar. — With Victor Reyes
