DOJ to bare report on 52 drug cases involving 154 cops

The Department of Justice. (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer).

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday said it was ready to make public a matrix of the 52 incidents of police antidrug operations that resulted in the questionable killings of drug suspects.

The report would be focusing on the initial batch of cases involving 154 police officers, who were recommended to be charged administratively by the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police.

A DOJ-led review panel, in turn, submitted the findings to the National Bureau of Investigation for the possible filing of criminal charges against the PNP personnel.

“This is for the purpose of … informing the families and loved ones of the deceased suspects that the circumstances surrounding each incidence of death are undergoing a determination of possible criminal liabilities on the part of erring police officers,” the DOJ said in a statement.

It also said it wanted to encourage “witnesses or persons with first-hand information” to come forward and help the NBI, which had been tasked to look into the so-called ‘nanlaban’ incidents wherein the slain suspects allegedly resisted arrest and engaged policemen in a gunfight.

The release of the information, the DOJ added, was “part of the [DOJ’s] recognition of the importance of transparency in its review process.”

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the 20-page document will be released to the families of the slain drug suspects and the media on Wednesday.

The document will include basic details about the 52 incidents, such as the names of the fatalities, the docket number of the cases and the observations of the DOJ panel that President Rodrigo Duterte created to examine his brutal war on drugs.

The release of the information came nearly two weeks after United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged the Philippine government to publish the findings of the investigation. INQ