Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin on Monday said the Supreme Court takes seriously the allegations that 13 judges are involved in the illegal drug trade.
“The allegations came out directly from the Office of the President, so we should not ignore it,” Bersamin said. “It’s not a small thing for anyone to accuse sitting judges of violations as serious as drug-related ones.”
Earlier, the Court appointed Justice Diosdado Peralta to coordinate with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which said 13 unidentified judges and 10 prosecutors were among those included in its “narco-list.”
PDEA has said it would not release the names of the prosecutors or the judges until they are validated, but Bersamin said it was only natural for the Court to investigate the allegations.
“Every time that the Executive Department, media, or any other quarter repor[s] something about misbehaving judges, the Supreme Court automatically looks into it,” the chief magistrate said.
“So it was only natural for the Supreme Court to assign one of its most senior members to look into these allegations and if there are any bases for these allegations then we would proceed against the judges concerned,” he added.
“Justice Peralta has not yet given a report and I doubt if he has already done much because it is too soon. We will give him all the time and we will not rush things because these are serious allegations that we cannot just ignore. And at the same time, we cannot just condemn our judges so readily without basis. So we have to go slowly,” Bersamin said.
Bersamin said the Court has been responsive to serious allegations against members of the judiciary and has also cracked the whip on erring justices and judges.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has decided to defer its investigation into the 10 prosecutors tagged in the narco-list as it opted to allow PDEA to validate the names.
PDEA chief Aaron Aquino said the judges and prosecutors on the list are not yet a priority as they are focusing their validation efforts on the case build-up against the 46 politicians named by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The PDEA chief said the list of judges, prosecutors and other drug suspects—including 31 celebrities—would still undergo validation, which he said would take time.
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