MANILA – Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said the additional workload as the lead body in the government-wide crackdown on corruption will not affect his agency’s efficiency.
“So far, we have enough state counsels and state prosecutors to handle all these extra tasks assigned to the DOJ. We’ll add a corps of young lawyers who will get their appointments as prosecution attorneys very soon. if need be, we’ll draw from the legal complement of agencies attached to the DOJ, other than the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI),” Guevarra told reporters.
He added that the disposition rate of the National Prosecution Service has remained high.
“As to the review panel looking into police operations resulting in deaths in illegal drug cases, I think we can come up with at least an initial or partial report by the end of the month, as targeted,” Guevarra said in connection with the DOJ’s earlier assignment to review cases arising from the anti-illegal drug campaign.
Guevarra, however, conceded that the new normal due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has affected the pace of work at the DOJ.
“Sadly, the pandemic has affected our mobility in examining case files located in various field stations of law enforcement agencies. As I see it, though, there may not be a need to look at each and every case, if a pattern is clearly visible upon examination of sufficient random samplings,” he said.
Meanwhile, DOJ spokesperson and Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said the mega task force on corruption is ready to hit the ground running and receive leads for investigation.
“If the information is already complete such that it would be enough basis to file a complaint, then it can be referred either to the prosecutor if it involves an official below salary grade 27 or to the ombudsman if it is 27 and above,” Villar said.
She added that the hotline number for complaints is 85212930 or the DOJ Action Center: dojac@doj.gov.ph
In its last meeting, Villar said the Task Force Against Corruption Operations Center met to identify its functions, namely to act as the secretariat which receives information, complaints, and requests to investigate certain persons, acts, or agencies.
The information or report will be evaluated by a committee that will recommend appropriate action—whether to refer to a specific agency, or for further investigation, or presentation to the core group of the task force.
A case evaluation committee will do the screening of all information and complaints but the head of the evaluation committee has not been finally determined yet.
The evaluation committee makes a recommendation of where the reports get to be referred to but the referral is approved and signed by the chairperson, Villar said.