Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin vows fair probe on ‘narco judges’

MANILA, Philippines — Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin gave assurance of a thorough and fair investigation by the Supreme Court (SC) on the alleged involvement of 13 judges in the illegal drug trade as claimed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

In a chance interview yesterday at the SC compound in Baguio City where justices are holding their annual summer session, Bersamin revealed that they are closely monitoring the controversy.

“It’s not a small thing for anyone to accuse sitting judges of violations as serious as drug-related ones... These are serious allegations that we cannot just ignore,” the SC chief stressed.

This is precisely why the Court ordered an investigation on the reported inclusion of judges in the narco list of PDEA, he added.

“This information came from the Office of the President so we cannot really ignore and so we thought of assigning Justice (Diosdado) Peralta to look into this matter. It was only natural for the Supreme Court to assign one of its most senior members to look into these allegations and if there are any bases for these allegations, then we would proceed against the judges concerned. That’s a very perfectly natural reaction,” Bersamin pointed out.

He further revealed that Peralta would be given ample time to complete the investigation: “We will not rush things. And at the same time, we cannot just condemn our judges so readily without basis. So we have to go slowly.”

The high court, he said, has been responsive to serious allegations against members of the judiciary and has cracked the whip on erring justices and judges.

“Every time there is an allegation like this from the executive department, the media or any quarter about misbehaving judges, the Supreme Court automatically looks into it,” Bersamin added.

The SC had initiated an investigation on the four narco judges tagged by President Duterte in 2016 – Exequil Dagala of Dapa-Socorro in Surigao, Adriano Savillo of Iloilo City, Domingo Casiple of Aklan and Antonio Reyes of Baguio City.

After the probe by a special fact-finding panel led by retired associate justice Roberto Abad, the Court ordered an administrative investigation against Reyes and cleared the three other judges.

The high tribunal cited the findings of the panel that the judge accepted money for dismissal of drug cases based on affidavits of several witnesses and litigants involved in the alleged payoffs.

Reyes had denied the allegations, saying the acquittals were based solely on evidence.

As for Dagala, although cleared by the SC panel, he was dismissed from the judiciary over another administrative case in 2017.

The Department of Justice, for its part, has decided to defer its investigation on the 10 prosecutors tagged in the narco list as it opted to allow PDEA first to validate its information.

PDEA revealed recently that its narco list includes 10 prosecutors and 13 judges, but did not release their names pending verification and further validation of their alleged involvement in drug trade.