JUSTICE Undersecretary Adrian Sugay yesterday said that the Inter-Agency Review Panel’s investigation into the alleged extra-judicial killings during the government’s war on drugs will continue.
” Any and all possible administrative/criminal liability against those involved in these anti-illegal drug operations where deaths occurred may be pursued depending on any further findings/recommendations,” Sugay said.
Sugay was asked if senior government officials may be included in the probe for their failure to guide their subordinates during anti-drug operations.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra informed the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that standard protocol was not followed in many anti-narcotics operations where there had been deaths.
“Our initial and preliminary findings confirm that in many of these cases, law enforcement agents asserted that the subject of the anti-drug operations resisted arrest or attempted to draw a weapon and fight back. Yet no full examination of the weapon recovered was conducted, no verification of its ownership undertaken and no request for ballistic examination or paraffin test was pursued until its completion,” Guevarra said before the 46th Human Rights Council Session of the UNHRC late Wednesday afternoon (Manila time).
“In more than half of the records reviewed, the law enforcement agents involved failed to follow standard protocols pertaining to coordination with other agencies and processing of the crime scene,” he added.
Guevarra on Wednesday said that the PNP has already recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against police officers tagged in the alleged extra-judicial killings during President Duterte’s war on drugs.
