The Department of Justice (DOJ) is now coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to have other cases of unnecessary deaths committed during the government’s bloody war on drugs be transmitted to the DOJ for review.

“We are currently making arrangements for the examination of the rest. I have discussed the matter with the PNP chief, who has committed to cooperate,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a message.

“We’ll try to examine as many as we could. It all depends on the manpower resources that we can muster and the extent of cooperation that the PNP will extend to us. We may also consider random sampling of cases from all regions. It is possible that certain patterns may be observed without having to examine each and every case file, ” he continued.

The DOJ on Wednesday released information on the 52 drug war cases involving “unnecessary deaths” during the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.

The DOJ came up with a “table/matrix” concerning “details,” like names of victims, docket numbers, places and dates of the incidents, and the panel’s summary of observations.

Also, the table contained the recommendation of the PNP Internal Affairs Service, that ranges from dismissal, demotion and suspension of the lawmen involved.

Guevarra tasked the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a case build-up on the 52 cases against 154 policemen tagged in these “tokhang cases.”

AUTHOR PROFILE

Hector Lawas