Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has overturned a resolution by a panel of prosecutors clearing confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa and suspected Cebu drug kingpin Peter Lim and several others of drug charges.
“I issued an order [voiding] the dismissal of the case, so much so that there is no such dismissal anymore,” Aguirre said.
There you go!
The justice secretary once said that he didn’t interfere in the work of the National Prosecution Service (NPS), which is composed of all prosecutors — or fiscals, their old title — across the country.
He could have ordered the NPS earlier to send back to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) the charge sheet against the suspects for lack of evidence.
The CIDG had filed the charges in the Department of Justice.
The problem with Aguirre is that, unlike his predecessors, most prosecutors disrespect him.
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The Philippine National Police (PNP) seems disorganized: each unit within the organization operates without coordinating with other units.
Such disunity showed in the filing of drug charges against Espinosa, et al.
The CIDG said it could not submit Espinosa’s confession in the Senate as evidence as he later retracted his admission.
But the Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) on Tuesday said it had an extrajudicial confession from Espinosa.
Then why in heaven’s name didn’t the DEG submit the Espinosa confession it obtained to the CIDG as evidence?
“Unfortunately, maybe we (PNP units) didn’t get the chance to talk. But I think that evidence is available in the Senate. We submitted that to the Senate,” said Chief Supt. Albert Ferro, DEG chief.
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On the other hand, the panel of prosecutors which dismissed the drug charges for supposedly being weak could have thrown the case back to the CIDG.
The prosecutors knew that the public was waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the panel’s investigation.
The problem with prosecutors who handle criminal cases filed by the police is that most of them are too scared to question or berate officers who file cases against citizens either on a whim or with malicious intent.
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As a radio ombudsman or host of the “Isumbong Mo Kay Tulfo” public service program, I’ve seen so many instances of policemen filing cases capriciously against persons who had offended them.
The inquest prosecutors would then file the cases in court without asking the accused what brought about the charges.
An example was this criminal case filed against a woman for drug pushing after a police investigator caught her taking a video inside the station.
The woman, Nelissa Rullan, had gone to the station after her brother was arrested for drug use.
Nelissa’s mother had asked her to go to the station, hoping that her presence would prevent the arresting officers from beating up her brother.
All her neighbors and the barangay officials in her community, who swore Nelissa was a law-abiding citizen, were surprised when she ended up being charged with drug pushing, a serious offense.