Government prosecutors are preparing charges against cops who violated protocols in enforcing President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war against illegal drugs, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said on Wednesday.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo M. Año and new national police chief Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar have expressed their support to the panel of prosecutors reviewing cases of deaths from illegal drug operations, he said in a Viber group message.
Officials from the three agencies would meet soon to discuss the criminal complaints “so that we’ll have consistent baseline figures,” the Justice chief said. “We request your patience.”
Meanwhile, convicted drug lord Yu Yuk Lai has died of a heart attack and was confirmed to have been positive for the coronavirus, the Bureau of Corrections said in a statement on Tuesday night.
Ms. Lai was confined at the East Avenue Medical Center for seven days until May 11 and died on Tuesday.
She was imprisoned at a prison for women near the Philippine capital after a Manila trial court sentenced her to life imprisonment in Sept. 2001.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency earlier said she was still involved in drugs even while in prison. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago
