Guevarra: DOJ to review practice for drug cases under automatic review

MANILA, Philippines — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday said that the Department of Justice will study possible options for detaining drug suspects with pending case for review.

Facing the Commission on Appointment, Guevarra was grilled on the current practice of the DOJ in handling drug cases.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III pointed out that based on a DOJ circular, a drug case will be elevated to the Office of the Justice Secretary for automotic review once dismissed. 

Sotto, however, expressed concern that a drug suspect may be released and therefore flee, pending the case for review at the DOJ. He said that authorities may fail to find drug suspects again, should the case be overturned through a review and the suspects would be charged in a new resolution.

Guevarra said that the DOJ will study their options, especially with the recent Supreme Court decision that nullified the DOJ-issued Watch List Order. The WLO was once used by former Justice chief Leila de Lima against Rep. Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo (Pampanga), former president and her husband Mike, who were then facing electoral sabotage charges for alleged fraud in the 2007 midterm elections.

READ: SC: DOJ's watch list order unconstitutional

Explaining the ruling, Guevarra said that the SC held that there are “no statutory basis for the DOJ, through the [Bureau of Immigration], to stop a mere respondent leaving the country.”

Guevarra explained that a drug suspect may only be detained immediately if the person was caught in the act of the crime. “Other than that, these people under investigation cannot just be detained like that,” the Justice chief explained, stressing the current procedural law on the matter.

State prosecutors, he added, may only summon respondents. A warrant of arrest can be issued by a local court.

Sotto said that a previous circular during the time of former Justice secretary Simeon Datumanong stated that a respondent will not be released pending case for review. But Guevarra said that the current procedure of the DOJ bars them from doing so.

He said they have already filed a motion for reconsideration on the ruling, and lamented that they are in a “tight situation” as the DOJ cannot bar even high-profile suspects from leaving the country.

The Justice chief also said that the Congress may step in to empower the DOJ in the face of drug case review.

“We ask Congress to enact a law that will authorize the DOJ, if not to detain the person, to hold him from leaving the country,” the Justice chief said.

Guevarra takes the seat vacated by former Vitaliano Aguirre II, who resigned from the position amid the controversy brought by the prosecution’s dismissal of drug raps against Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Lim, inmate Peter Co and a dozen others.