PNP chief admits lapses in 52 drug war cases

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar. INQUIRER file photo / Niño Jesus Orbeta

LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police, did not deny the claim of Vice President Leni Robredo that the report on 52 drug war cases confirmed lapses in the government’s controversial war against illegal drugs.

“The documents or cases we forwarded to the DOJ (Department of Justice), from the very start, we know there were lapses there,” Eleazar told journalists at a press conference held at Camp Nakar here on Tuesday morning.

Eleazar explained that it was the reason why they submitted the reports on the 52 drug war cases for review of the DOJ.

“She (Robredo) is right. There were really lapses from the very start,” Eleazar said.

He added: “We turned over those cases for further review to see if there is basis for criminal liability for further investigation of the DOJ.”

Confirmed

On Sunday, Robredo renewed her attacks on the controversial drug war of the Duterte administration and said the initial report of the DOJ on the 52 drug war cases only confirmed that there were indeed “many lapses” in the government’s brutal war on drugs.

The investigation of the criminal liabilities of police officers behind the killings of drug suspects would continue whoever will be the successor of the PNP chief, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Tuesday.

Guevarra made the assurance following the release of the case summary of 52 “nanlaban” cases, or incidents in which individuals were killed by PNP personnel for supposedly resisting arrest.

“The President has a standing order to the DOJ and the PNP to review the conduct of the drug war and to impose sanctions upon those who went beyond the bounds of the law,” Guevarra said in a Viber message.

NBI investigation

“I expect that the next PNP chief, whoever he may be, will strictly comply with the president’s directive,” he said.

The justice secretary said he was expecting Eleazar, who is set to retire next month, and Eric Distor, officer in charge of the National Bureau of Investigation, to sign a memorandum of agreement within the week.

The agreement between the two law enforcement agencies was in connection with the NBI’s investigation of the antidrug operations of the PNP that resulted in killings of drug suspects.

Guevarra had earlier said that the PNP and the NBI agreed to adopt a mechanism to guide them in examining Mr. Duterte’s take-no-prisoners strategy to rid the country’s drug scourge, which he had promised to do within the first six months of his administration.

The initial batch of cases that the DOJ-led review panel had looked into involved 58 drug suspects who were slain in operations carried out by 154 cops.

Last week, the DOJ declared 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 initial findings released by the DOJ showed that many of the suspects killed were negative for gunpowder nitrates, adding that in many of the cases, there were no paraffin tests, death certificates, autopsy reports and other necessary documents.