STRESSING President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for him to ensure that ‘the rule of law will be fully observed’ in their campaign against drugs and other forms of criminality and terrorism, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar has vowed to fully cooperate with the official government investigation on alleged lapses committed by some policemen as a result of their war on drugs since July 2016.

The top cop made the assurance as he and National Bureau of Investigation Officer-in-Charge, Director Eric B. Distor signed a memorandum of agreement regarding their. conduct of full inquiry on possible lapses and human rights committed by some police personnel in the conduct of ant-narcotics operations since the start of the Duterte administration.

The PNP and NBI chiefs signed the agreement at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) main office in Manila last week.

The four-page MOA serves as an authority for the two agencies to build cases against PNP personnel who would be found violating the criminal laws in the conduct of operations against illegal drug personalities across the country.

“The PNP and the NBI shall jointly evaluate the government’s anti-illegal drug operations, and, where necessary, determine possible criminal liability on the part of the police officers involved in these operations,” the MOA read.

“As state agencies, both parties seek to ascertain the truth regarding the allegations of human rights violations and possible criminal liability in the conduct of government’s anti-illegal drug operations,” it added.

The agreement also emphasized the commitment of the PNP and the NBI in supporting each other in terms of sharing all documents, records and pieces of evidence relating to the police anti-drug operations; and in undertaking investigation, case build-up and the possible filing of criminal complaints against any police officer who would be found violating the laws.

The MOA also requires the PNP and the NBI to prepare a full and detailed report of all relevant findings and recommendations.

Under the agreement, the PNP is set to designate representatives from the Internal Affairs Service and the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management while the NBI will name representatives from its Office of the Assistant Director for Regional Operations Service, Office of the Assistant Director for Investigation Service, Office of the Assistant Director for Intelligence Service, and the Office of the Assistant Director for Forensic Service.

The representatives from the PNP-NBI Joint Investigation Team will be named within the next two weeks and will meet at least once a month.

“The signing of this Agreement is proof of the PNP’s commitment to transparency and accountability and in order to finally settle the allegations of human rights abuses that have been hounding the government’s aggressive campaign against illegal drugs since July 2016,” said Gen. Eleazar.

“Through this Agreement, we will be able to ferret out the truth and correct the wrong impression that all our operations relating to illegal drugs campaign are tainted with human rights abuse. Napakalaki ng sakripisyo ng ating kapulisan sa kampanyang ito at marami din kaming kasamahan na nagbuwis ng buhay at nasugatan sa aming mga operasyon,” he added.

The top cop had emphasized that the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs did not only result in the confiscation of multi-billion worth of illegal drugs, dismantling of all shabu laboratories in the country and the neutralization of key players in illegal drugs smuggling and distribution across the country.

He said the aggressive campaign also resulted in the unprecedented reduction of index crime by almost 70 percent in the last five years.

For his part, Director Distor assured impartiality in the conduct of the investigation.

“The NBI shares the goal of the PNP to put an end to the illegal drugs problems in the country. We have been coordinating and working together to address this problem through joint operations and information sharing,” the NBI chief said.

“We assure impartiality in the conduct of investigation and we are confident that this would finally address the concerns on the manner by which the government’s illegal drug operations have been undertaken and to correct what needs to be corrected in the interest of truth and justice,” he added. At least 52 cases involving 154 police officers will be prioritized by the PNP-NBI Joint Investigation Team. Those cases were already reviewed by the DOJ and were recommended for further investigation and case build-up.

Gen. Eleazar earlier coordinated with the DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra, through Department of Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Eduardo M. Año for the conduct of review of the 52 cases of police operations earlier flagged by the IAS for possible violation of the Police Operational Procedures.

The criminal cases that may be recommended by the Joint Investigation Team are separate from the administrative cases that would be pursued by the IAS, he explained.

Gen. Eleazar earlier acknowledged a Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) report regarding 500 incidents of deaths and alleged violence committed by members of the police force in the crackdown against illegal drug trafficking and abuse since July, 2016.

“We respect the investigation conducted by the Commission on Human Rights as this task falls under its constitutional mandate,” the top cop said.

“But the main reason behind the investigation conducted by the CHR is the same reason why we coordinated with the Department of Justice for the review of the police operations relating to the campaign against illegal drugs,” he added.

Based on the CHR report, only 11 survived out of the 466 individuals who allegedly resisted arrest during police operations.

The human rights body also stressed that at least 87 victims had mostly multiple gunshot wounds on different parts of the body and that there were signs that blunt force was imposed on those who died in the operations.

“We in the Philippine National Police would also want to know the truth because these allegations of human rights and extra-judicial killings that have been hounding us in more than five years have resulted in sweeping generalization that all our operations against illegal drugs are tainted with abuses,” Gen. Eleazar said.

“This is unfair to a number of our operatives who died and were wounded in the conduct of operations and this grossly ignores the fact that the efforts and sacrifices of our men on the ground have resulted in the unprecedented reduction of index crimes across the country,” he explained.