DOJ drops 29 extrajudicial killing, torture cases from probe list

Twenty-nine cases of extrajudicial killings and torture have been stricken from the list by the Department of Justice (DOJ) due to lack of witnesses, Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.

“Those were very old cases where no witnesses could be found despite diligent efforts of our special investigation teams. And there were many cases where the complainants desisted from pressing charges,” Guevarra told GMA News Online.

He said many of the cases predate Administrative Order No. 35.

Under AO 35, the Inter-Agency Committee On Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture, and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons (IAC) was created.

The oldest case was in 2002, according to Guevarra.

Meanwhile, Guevarra said inter-agency special composite teams from the Department of National Defense, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, and Commission on Human Rights looked into the cases.

The DOJ has reviewed 352 cases where individuals have been killed during the police's anti-drug operations since 2016.

In October 2021, the agency published its review of 52 drug war cases that showed that several suspects that were killed after allegedly firing first at police officers were negative for gunpowder nitrates.

The agency said the release of the results of its review of the remaining cases needs the approval of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte, accused of human rights violations because of his bloody war on drugs, earlier said he would prepare his defense on possible International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment after he steps down from office on June 30, 2022. —LBG/KBK, GMA News