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| A memorial with the names of the victims of extra-judicial killings, says, "Justice to the victims of the extrajudicial killings". (Photo from Karapatan, Release) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The Department of Justice is coordinating with the police to get thousands more case files on anti-narcotics operations that resulted in deaths, but officials admit they are undertaking “cumbersome” work, and a review of the “war on drugs” may be a task for the next administration. With less than a year left in the term, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra vowed they will “try to examine as many [cases] as we could,” PhilStar reported.
So far, the DOJ review of “war on drugs” operations that resulted in deaths, which started in June 2020, have examined files of some 350 cases. The first review covered 300 cases in a few provinces with the highest incidence of police operations resulting in deaths, particularly in Bulacan and Pampanga. The second part of the review looked into 52 files from the Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Services, where it found direct liability on cops involved in the deadly “war on drugs” operations. A matrix on this was made public on Wednesday.
With just a few months left in the administration, Guevarra admitted that the review will “[depend] on the manpower resources that we can muster and the extent of cooperation that the PNP will extend to us.”
