THE next chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) should follow President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to review drug war cases particularly where deaths occurred during operations, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday said.

“The President has a standing order to the DOJ and the PNP to review the conduct of the drug war and to impose sanctions upon those who went beyond the bounds of the law. I expect that the next PNP chief, whoever he may be, will strictly comply with the President’s directive, ” Guevarra said.

The current PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar will reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 for uniformed men on November 13.

Eleazar is the country’s 26th PNP Chief. He is a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Hinirang” Class of 1987 and he assumed his post on May 8, 2021 — replacing now retired general and current Office of the President Undersecretary Debold Sinas.

The DOJ leads a panel of several government agencies, including law enforcement units, in reviewing 5,655 anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths to see whether to file charges against the police officers involved.

The DOJ has been granted unprecedented access to PNP’s records of deaths during the government’s war on drugs.

The DOJ recently 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 has tasked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a case build-up on the 52 cases against 154 policemen tagged in these ‘tokhang cases.’

AUTHOR PROFILE

Hector Lawas