Remulla needs to fix ‘complicated’ problems in DOJ

MANILA, Philippines — The incoming secretary of justice got a first-hand glimpse of the complicated problems besetting the Department of Justice yesterday and said he might seek a second meeting with DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s transition team.

Cavite 7th District Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla has been entrusted by president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with the affairs of the DOJ and its attached agencies when his administration takes over on June 30.

Yesterday, Remulla met behind closed doors with Guevarra and the DOJ transition team and emerged more than two hours later, telling media:

“We might ask for a second one, because there are really complicated problems in the system that we need to fix,” Remulla said.

Asked by reporters to expound on these problems he termed as “masalimuot” or complicated, Remulla said they were too long to be discussed in a brief interview.

The DOJ has 10 attached agencies: the Bureau of Corrections, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, Parole and Probation Administration, Presidential Commission on Good Government, Public Attorney’s Office, Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, Office of the Solicitor General and the Land Registration Authority.

When he officially sits at the helm of the DOJ, many matters would require his immediate attention, Remulla said, without mentioning specific priorities.

“It is a big work in progress that we will continue. We would implement improvements, those that can be done,” he said.

Remulla was accompanied at the meeting by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Brigido Dulay and Jesse Andres, who was once the chief of staff of former vice president Noli de Castro.

In a previous interview, Remulla said that Dulay will be his chief of staff, while Andres would be one of his undersecretaries at the DOJ. There is also a possibility that Dulay would be appointed as an undersecretary.

But Andres did not confirm any of these reports. “I will join definitely (the Remulla team), but we still have to go through the screening. So until our papers are approved, we do not yet have an official capacity,” he said.

Guevarra, who was appointed secretary of justice on April 5, 2018, exits the DOJ on June 30 when President Duterte officially steps down from office.