Palace wants a robust justice system to address issues of impunity

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella / File Presidential Photo

Malacañang on Friday vowed to strengthen the Philippines’ justice system to address impunity in the country.

“The true depth, breadth and magnitude of crime and terrorism, funded by illegal drugs, have only been recently uncovered; resistance from those adversely affected by the current government’s campaign against illegal drugs has been strong, and internal cleansing by organized crime have all had violent results,” Malacañang spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

“We must therefore strengthen the pillars of the criminal justice system, which include the community, law enforcement, prosecution, the courts and corrections,” he added.

Abella issued this statement after the Philippines ranked the highest in impunity based on the 2017 Global Impunity Index (GII) by the University of the Americas Puebla and UDLAP Jenkins Graduate School.

The study, conducted among 69 countries, revealed the Philippines topped in the impunity index with 75.6 points, followed by India with 70.94 points.

READ: PH ‘under critical moments,’ tops global impunity index

“The Philippines is going through one of its critical moments, due to the increase of violence related with organized crime and increased terrorist activities from local gangs linked with the Islamic State,” the GII said.

But Abella said the report of the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico showing that the Philippines has a very high impunity index must be taken in its proper context.”

The Palace official said previous administrations have faced these same problems but said it was only under the Duterte administration that crime and terrorism were “being decisively addressed.” /jpv