THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) is about to finish its review of 52 cases of police anti-drug operations wherein administrative charges may be filed, according to Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra.  

“We are about to wind up with the review of 52 cases turned over to us by the PNP-IAS (Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service), and if time will permit, we will also take a look at the more than 6,000 cases which are also investigated by the PNP-IAS but where the respondents were exonerated for insufficiency of evidence,” he said during the pre-State of the Nation Address forum on Wednesday.   

Mr. Guevarra also said during the forum that the DoJ “has achieved significant improvements across our performance indeces” in the past five years under President Rodrigo R. Duterte.  

He cited the rate of disposition of cases by the justice department’s National Prosecution Service, which he said “stood at an all-time high of 91.19%” in 2020 from 87.23% in 2016.   

He added that the department’s conviction rate in trial courts has more than doubled to 41.74% in 2018 when he was appointed as secretary, and further increased to 49.46% in 2020 from “a measly 20.4%” in 2016. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago  

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