ACTING Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra vowed Friday to restore “the dignified image” of the Justice department as his controversial predecessor left office, hounded by a string of controversies.
Guevarra said Friday that President Rodrigo Duterte entrusted him with a mission to carry out reforms that would restore the people’s trust in the Department of Justice and to carry out its primary goal of administering justice to all.
“The President told me to bring back the DoJ’s dignified image,” Guevarra, a former senior deputy executive secretary at the Office of the President, said, in a text message to reporters Friday.
Duterte designated Guevarra on Thursday as the acting Justice secretary after accepting Aguirre’s resignation.
Aguirre, along with his wife, Marissa Lim, bid goodbye to employees and officials of the DoJ after attending the monthly First Friday Mass at the department.
Aguirre, wearing his fraternity jacket, was accompanied by Justice Undersecretaries Reynante Orceo, Deo Marco, Raymund Mecate, and Antonio Kho. They are all fraternity brothers of the President from law school.
As a parting message to his DoJ colleagues, Aguirre thanked President Duterte for the trust and confidence that he showed him and said he was leaving the department better then he found it.
On Thursday, Duterte accepted Aguirre’s resignation after reports said the President was displeased by the decision of DoJ prosecutors to dismiss a drug complaint against alleged drug lords.
In a move widely seen as a setback for the administration’s war on illegal drugs, a panel of DoJ prosecutors dismissed the case against self-confessed drug trafficker Kerwin Espinosa.
Duterte administered the oath of office to Gueverra on Thursday, immediately after signing his appointment paper.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said he was not sure if Aguirre would be reassigned to another government position.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Guevarra should be given the men and materiel needed to institute improvements in the department, noting that it was “hobbled by across-the-board shortages in personnel and equipment.”
He said Guevarra’s first order of business is to fill vacancies in key DoJ agencies and ask his former office, Malacañang, to propose higher funding for new equipment and buildings.
“For example, there are 1,657 vacant prosecutorial posts. The problem is that there are no takers because of the low pay for the hard labor, and the only bonus one gets is ‘unli’ death threats.”
As a result, one prosecutor handles about 403 criminal cases, Recto said. “Daily, the prosecutor attends three court hearings, in addition to preliminary investigations, retrials, witness deposition, mediation, among others.”
There is also a shortage of public lawyers. At present, one Public Attorney Office lawyer handles 5,237 clients a year, and, at any given time, has 504 cases in court.
“All of them lack computers. They need paralegals to back them up. Comfortable offices are a rarity. And when it comes to preparing briefs, it is buy-your-own-supplies,” Recto said.
