THE JUSTICE department will review more cases that might have involved extra-judicial killings (EJK), including police anti-drug operations, according to an official.
“We will be reconciling the numbers. There could be a few more,” Justice Undersecretary Adrian F. Sugay told reporters on Wednesday.
Police chief Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar said they are ready to turn over to the Justice department all such records upon request.
“We will provide them with this information,” Mr. Eleazar said in an interview on ABS-CBN news channel.
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, who earlier this week said they will be looking into 61 out of the 7,000 police case records, said they are ready to expand their investigation.
“If the PNP (Philippine National Police) chief has said that the review panel may also review these other cases, we will be very happy to do so, as this is what we had wanted in the first place,” Mr. Guevarra told reporters Wednesday.
The 61 cases were those where “clear liability was established” based on a review and evaluation by the police Internal Affairs Service.
National Union of Peoples Lawyers President Edre U. Olalia, in a statement on Wednesday, said it would be best to “completely and totally open any and all files, documents, records, and uncontaminated evidence to an impartial scrutiny by an independent body, with no other purpose but to arrive at the truth in all its g(l)ory, to render justice to the victims, and to stop the barbaric impunity that has not solved the drug menace to this day.” — Bianca Angelica D. Añago