Noy abolishes automatic Palace review of drug cases dismissed by DOJ

MANILA, Philippines -  President Aquino has abolished a rule giving the Office of the President the power to automatically review drug cases dismissed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Secretary Leila de Lima said in a legal opinion issued to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

De Lima said Aquino’s Administrative Order 8, issued March 14, effectively brought back to the DOJ the full authority over the resolution of drug-related cases.

She said AO 8 repealed AO 253, issued by the former administration in 2009 in response to the dismissal by the DOJ of the drug charges against “Alabang Boys” Jorge Joseph, Joseph Tecson and Richard Brodett, who were arrested in PDEA’s drug busts.

In an expose of The STAR, several DOJ prosecutors were accused of receiving bribes to dismiss the case, prompting then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to create an independent panel to probe the allegation.

Upon the recommendation of the fact-finding panel, Arroyo reversed the DOJ’s findings and ordered the filing of criminal complaints against the three drug suspects as well as administrative complaints against those who approved the resolution dismissing the case.

The new AO, according to De Lima, provides that all pending drug cases for review before the OP shall be returned back to the DOJ for their appropriate disposition.

“Since the directive for the automatic review by the Office of the President of the decisions and resolutions of the DOJ secretary covering dismissed drug-related cases as mandated under AO 253 is eliminated and the proper disposition of drug-related cases is now fully vested with the DOJ, there is no more reason why the prosecutor cannot file the appropriate information insofar as those cases or complaints found to be with probable cause,” she said.

PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez sought a legal opinion from the DOJ following numerous petitions for writ of habeas corpus and other charges filed against its personnel in connection with the agency’s effort to comply with AO 253.

In its letter, PDEA asked the DOJ on whether law enforcers can keep a respondent in custody pending an automatic review of dismissed non-bailable charges against the suspect even when another charge against the same person, a bailable one, is already in court.

The DOJ chief stressed that the query has become moot following the repeal of AO 253.

“The instant query insofar as the custody of the respondent while the case is pending resolution for automatic review is concerned, is no longer an issue, in the light...of the latest presidential issuance repealing the automatic review of dismissed drug-related cases,” she said.

De Lima said a person arrested and detained has a right to post bail, except if he has been charged with an offense punishable by life imprisonment – in which case it is up to the court to allow him to post bail.