Duterte to Guevarra:

Restore DOJ’s ‘dignified

image’
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:04 AM April 07, 2018

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte administers the oath of Ad Interim Secretary of Justice
Menardo Guevarra during a ceremony at the Malacañang Palace on April 5, 2018. ACE
MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

“Bring back the dignified image” of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Newly appointed Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Friday said this was the
marching order he had received from President Duterte, as he took over an agency
lately dogged by controversy.

Mr. Duterte installed Guevarra, a former senior deputy executive secretary, at the helm
of the DOJ after accepting the resignation of Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday.
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Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier quoted the President as saying that he
was displeased with the DOJ decision to dismiss the drug charges against several
confessed drug lords, including Kerwin Espinosa and Peter Lim, in a move seen as a
setback in the government’s war on drugs.

Guevarra said he was “overwhelmed” by Mr. Duterte’s confidence in him. “The

President seldom sees me, yet he entrusts such a sensitive position to me,” he said.
Aguirre, meanwhile, expressed “gratitude” to the President “for (his) trust and
confidence” and “the opportunity to serve our countrymen as the steward of DOJ.”

In a message to DOJ employees and officials on Friday, Aguirre added: “I am not sad
that (my stint) has ended, rather I am thankful that it happened. I am eternally grateful
to all!”

‘Collective efforts’

He also acknowledged the agency’s “collective efforts” that, he said, “(had) improved
the DOJ in key areas.”

For Aguirre, who was largely credited for putting behind bars Mr. Duterte’s most vocal
critic, opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, “the DOJ is better not because of me but because
everybody committed heart, body and soul to march toward a single cadence.”

The former justice secretary and his wife, Marissa, joined department officials and
employees at the DOJ office on Padre Faura, Manila, during the noontime Mass held to
mark the first Friday of the month.
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The former DOJ chief, who wore a jacket bearing the name of his fraternity, Lex
Talionis, which also counts Mr. Duterte and four of Aguirre’s deputies among its
members, declined media interviews.

He had started packing his personal effects from his office, according to Justice
Undersecretary and DOJ spokesperson Erickson Balmes.

Aside from the dismissal of charges against the confessed drug lords, several
controversies hounded Aguirre in his two-year stint as head of the DOJ, including his
claim that several opposition lawmakers were behind the terror attack in Marawi City in
May last year.

Aguirre’s decision to resign was “good for him and the country,” said Manila Auxiliary
Bishop Broderick Pabillo. “He was so erratic as a secretary in his sense of justice,” he
added.
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said that the DOJ’s exoneration of the confessed drug
lords showed Aguirre’s bias for the rich and the powerful, even if they were criminals.

‘Secretary of injustice’

“His act encourages drug lords to continue their criminal activities and the proliferation
of extrajudicial killings and murders. He is a secretary of injustice!” Bastes said.

At the Senate, Sen. Bam Aquino said he was elated over Aguirre’s resignation, adding
in a statement that “the Filipino people deserve a credible, capable and respectable
justice secretary who will lead with integrity and rebuild our trust in the DOJ.”

Sen. Risa Hontiveros also issued a statement describing the President’s acceptance of
Aguirre’s resignation as “too late the hero for Justice Zero.”

She said the President’s move “absolves Aguirre from accountability, and amounts to
little more than a sorry attempt on the (President’s) part to save face despite Aguirre’s
repeated fiascos.”

Still, Hontiveros added, Aguirre’s departure from the DOJ was “a clear victory against
injustice and impunity.”

Whether Aguirre’s resignation was graceful or unceremonious, his actions at the DOJ
should be assessed, Sen. Grace Poe said.

“(I)f abuses or oversight were committed, (Aguirre) cannot claim immunity from
having to account for them,” she added. —REPORTS FROM NESTOR CORRALES,
JULIUS N. LEONEN, MARLON RAMOS, JULIE M. AURELIO AND
CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/980728/duterte-to-guevarra-restore-dojs-

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