PNP orders review of dismissed drug cases

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Guillermo Eleazar during a Senate hearing. Senate PRIB file photo / Joseph Vidal

Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police, wants an accounting and review of all dismissed drug cases since 2016 when President Duterte’s war on drugs started.

Eleazar said that a scrutiny of the causes of their dismissal would help the PNP in making adjustments to and improvements in its police operations and raising the conviction rate in drug-related court cases.

“I am directing all police units nationwide to account for all cases pertaining to illegal drugs that have been dismissed, ” the PNP chief told a press conference on Monday in Camp Crame.

‘Aimed at fixing mistakes’

He tasked the PNP directorate for investigation and detective management to “review the causes for dismissal of these cases so we can make the appropriate adjustments and improvements on how we conduct our anti-illegal drug operations.”

“This is both aimed at fixing mistakes made by our anti-illegal drug operatives, if there are any, in the conduct of operations that may have led to the dismissal of these cases as well as holding police personnel accountable for failure to strictly observe police operating procedures, which weakened the prosecution of these cases in court,” Eleazar explained.

Deliberate dismissal

He pointed out that the objective was to improve the conviction rate in drug-related cases.

Eleazar noted that since the war on drugs started in July 2016, a total of 289,622 drug suspects have been arrested in 200,632 anti-illegal drug operations.

“The conviction of all these arrested drug suspects would prove we are winning the war on drugs and that it has been effectively curbing the further proliferation of illegal drugs in the country,” he pointed out.

Eleazar added that the possibility of some policemen deliberately causing the dismissal of the drug cases, in connivance with the accused, would also be determined in the accounting and review of the dismissed drug cases. INQ