JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday said the DOJ-led AO35 task force has delisted 29 extrajudicial killing and torture cases in Regions 4 and 8 even if they had reached the investigation stage.
Guevarra said the decision to delist the said cases was arrived at during the 16th regular meeting of the AO35 committee last May 12.
“There were 29 EJK and torture cases in Regions IV and VIII that were delisted for lack of witnesses or lack of interest on the part of the complainants,” Guevarra said.
He said most of the delisted cases have reached the investigation stage at the level of the PNP, Commission on Human Rights and the National Prosecution Service.
Guevarra added the “review of unsolved AO35 cases in other regions is still going on.”
Guevarra stressed that enforced disappearances cases “will continue to be in the active file” of the task force.
The task force was created under Administrative Order No. 35 issued by President Benigno Aquino III in 2013 to investigate extrajudicial killings in the country.
The task force is composed of the DOJ as the lead agency, with the Departments of the Interior and Local Government and National Defense, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the AFP, PNP, National Bureau of Investigation, Office of Political Affairs, and the Presidential Human Rights Committee as members.
Guevarra also said 263 cases for violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) were referred to the task force for continued investigation. The cases, coming from Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas, ranged from the use of child combatants to land mines, among others.
“We created a small working group to move the investigation and prosecution of cases of international humanitarian law violations. The working group will initially focus on IHL cases where the Armed Forces of the Philippines has provided records of the incidents,” Guevarra said.
