'No more wall' between CHR and inter-agency task force in probes of EJKs
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra admitted on Monday, March 15, the reluctance between the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the inter-agency task force on extra-judicial killings (EJKs) to collaborate on past investigations.

“In the past medyo may konti lang lack of collaboration with CHR dahil merong sort of reluctance on the part of each side to share information (there has been lack of collaboration in the past with CHR because of reluctance on the part of each side to share information),” Guevarra said during the briefing in Malacanang.
“But we have overcome I think that obstacle and both our sides and CHR have agreed to cooperate more closely in the investigation of incidents allegedly committed in violation of civil and political rights,” he said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) chairs the Administrative Order No. 35 (AO 35) Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons, while the CHR is an observer, Guevarra noted.
Aside from the DOJ, the other members of the AO 35 are the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of National Defense (DND), the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“We have gotten the necessary support and cooperation from them (CHR),” Guevarra said.
Last Sunday, Guevarra announced the participation of the CHR in the A035 inter-agency committee’s investigation of the deaths of nine activists in South Luzon provinces last March 7.