The Department of Justice has recorded an almost 50 % conviction rate of all the criminal cases it filed before various courts last year, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Wednesday.
“In 2020, the DOJ’s conviction rate registered its highest at 49.46 percent. Our conviction rate in trial courts has more than doubled. In 2016, that rate stood at a measly 20.4 percent,” Guevarra said.
“At the end of 2018, the year of my appointment as secretary of justice, our prosecutors had increased their conviction rate to 41.74 percent,” he added.
Guevarra said that as the government’s prosecution arm, it is the DOJ, through the National Prosecution Service, which ensures those who violate laws are tried in court and meted out punishment commensurate to their crimes.
The Justice Secretary also said the DOJ has achieved an all-time high rate of disposition of cases handled by the NPS in 2020 at 91.19 percent, up from 87.23 percent in 2016.
“The backlog rate of the NPS has considerably decreased from 49.80 percent in 2016 to just 29.5 percent in 2020,” he added.
Guevarra attributed the improved performance to the “hard work and unwavering dedication of our prosecutors in the discharge of their duty” and by a host of programs and interventions designed and implemented by the DOJ leadership to assist prosecutors in their tasks.