Reserve judgment on drug war panel at ‘proper time’: DOJ chief

FILE: Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday (Sept. 5, 2019). (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA – Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday urged outspoken critics of the administration’s war on drugs to hold their fire and reserve judgment on the inter-agency review panel that is evaluating the government’s anti-drug operations.

“It will be for everyone’s good to allow this inter-agency panel to do what it has set out to do, and reserve judgment at the proper time,” Guevarra said.

Guevarra said the panel which he chairs is targeting to come up with results by November.

“This panel needs all the help that it can get, including from those who seek to discredit it much too early,” he said.

Since the start of the year, he said the panel has been conducting judicious review of the 5,655 law enforcement operations where there were reported civilian fatalities.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is obliged by its internal mechanism to conduct investigations on its own whether or not there are complainants on all law enforcement operations that result in deaths and take action on this basis.

Guevarra earlier said “the panel, external to the Philippine National Police, re-evaluates these cases and examines the propriety of reinvestigating them or filing appropriate charges against erring law enforcement officers.”

He added that the panel intends to engage affected families, provide them with legal options, and assistance in criminal prosecution of law enforcers who have overstepped legal bounds in their operations.

Guevarra said the review mechanism will not only reinforce accountability on the drug campaign but also tighten the web on existing mechanisms to prevent cases of impunity, including the inter-agency committee on the extralegal killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other grave violations to life, liberty and security of persons.

Aside from the DOJ, nine other offices form part of the panel – the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat, the Presidential Management Staff, the Dangerous Drugs Board, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, PNP, and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Justice undersecretary and spokesman Markk Perete said work on the inter-agency review panel started February this year and have ironed out logistical and other requirements for it to function, including the sharing of data and case files by, among others, PDEA and PNP.