DOJ takes hands off for now in PDEA's criminal liability over fake drug raid

No investigation without a complaint.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it was for now taking a hands-off approach in the criminal liabilities of 5 agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) whom a court in Dumaguete found to have faked a drug buy-bust.

Dumaguete Judge Amelia Lourdes Mendoza dismissed the drug charges against the accused, and opened a contempt case against the agents for lying to the court.

She also sent a copy of her order to the DOJ in Manila and the City Prosecutors’ Office in Dumaguete “for the purpose of initiating an investigation into the criminal liabilities of the arresting officers and the team leaders.”

Prosecutor General Ben Malcontento earlier told Rappler the Dumaguete prosecutors would not get involved for now.

“For the DOJ-National Prosecution Service (NPS) to come into the picture there must be a complaint. The NPS is a prosecution service, not an investigation body,” Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar told reporters on Thursday, October 22.

No motu proprio?

Villar insisted that the Rules of Court places prosecutors in a passive role in which they could only step in when there was a complaint filed.

But the DOJ has a power to motu proprio, or on its own, open an investigation. Villar said “not the NPS but probably the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).” The NBI is also under the DOJ.

“The starting point for the NPS under the Rules of Court is a complaint. Prior to that, investigations can be conducted by other law enforcement agencies,” said Villar.

The Dumaguete court ruled that the agents faked the buy-bust after watching a CCTV footage presented during the hearing. In that footage, a PDEA vehicle was seen picking up 5 suspects by the roadside and bringing them to the site where the bogus buy-bust was staged.

Prosecutors filed the charges against the suspects in court, but Villar said, “not all these pieces of evidence were available during the investigation of the prosecutors.”

What can the DOJ do?

The role of prosecutors has been debated during the time of President Rodrigo Duterte amid accusations that they were too passive and turned a blind eye to fake raids. Even abuses were unchecked.

The DOJ has constituted two special panels – the Administrative Order (AO) 35 panel which would look into extrajudicial killings; and the drug war panel which would review the 5,655 deaths in police drug war operations.

The AO 35 panel is considering giving a more proactive role to prosecutors, said Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) executive director Ray Paolo Santiago during Rappler’s Law of Duterte Land Podcast. The AHRC is the DOJ’s academe partner in the AO 35 panel.

The drug war review panel, for its part, “focuses on illegal drug operations of law enforcement agents where deaths occurred,” said Villar.

“But nothing prevents the review panel from expanding the scope of its mandate by including cases of simulated raids, buy-busts, and the like,” Villar added.

“It’s still for study and consideration by the members of the review panel,” Villar added.

Lenient towards agents and cops

In October 2019, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made a public call to the courts to be a little bit more lenient in drug cases.

Guevarra’s call was made amid an increasing number of dismissal of illegal drugs cases because of weak case buildups by law enforcement.

The call was also made after a Supreme Court decision ordered courts to dismiss cases where law enforcement did not strictly follow protocols in their buy-busts.

Should the DOJ be more proactive into investigating fake raids especially because it made a public call to be more lenient in drug cases? (PODCAST: Law of Duterte Land: Policies beyond body count of Duterte’s drug war)

Villar stuck to her original answer – file a complaint first.

“The leniency you referred to happens when there is already a complaint filed and the prosecutor refers to the complaint to determine the presence of the elements of the crime to determine probable cause,” said Villar.

PDEA said it would pursue both criminal and administrative investigations into its own men.

The petitions to declare the drug war unconstitutional were still pending before the Supreme Court. The petitions accuse cops of staging raids, and planting evidence.

A scathing report recently issued by the United Nations Human Rights Office also said cops plant guns in crime scenes.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) said in December 2019 that it would, by 2020, come out with a determination if it would open a formal investigation into killings and human rights abuses in the Philippines. – Rappler.com