Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday, May 30, was all praises to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar for opening for review of at least 61 cases in the bloody war on drugs, which began during President Duterte’s term.

“Parang si (It’s like) General Eleazar (is) making all the right steps,” Robredo said in her weekly radio show, adding that opening the case files for investigation at the Department of Justice (DOJ) was an acknowledgment that there could be lapses in police operations in the past.

“Napakahalaga nito at ito iyong sinasabi natin last year, two years ago pa nag-ICAD tayo na kung ipakita lang ng PNP leadership na hindi niya ito itotolerate ‘yung masama, malaking bagay na, malaking bagay sa pagsalba ng institusyon (This is very important and this is what we’ve been saying last year, two years ago when we were part of ICAD that if the PNP leadership will show that it is not tolerating this wrongdoing, is already big. It’s already a huge step to saving the institution),” Robredo stressed.

After repeatedly criticizing the government’s war on drugs, Duterte challenged the vice president to co-chair the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) in 2019, but fired her after 18 days.

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2020/01/06/robredo-reports-on-failure-of-govt-anti-drugs-war/

The President created the ICAD in 2017 to prevent and control the distribution of illegal drugs in the country. He, however, tapped the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), an agency focused on the law enforcement side of the drug war, instead of the policy-making body, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB).

Robredo said the past leaderships of the PNP—Debold Sinas, Ronald Dela Rosa, Oscar Albayalde, Archie Gamboa, and Camilo Cascolan—were all against the opening of the drug war cases.

“Itong kay PNP Chief General Eleazar maraming actually ginagawa na encouraging. Kapag sinabi mong encouraging, parang nagkakaroon ka ng pakiramdam na ina-acknowledge iyong problema at ginagawaan ng solusyon (With PNP Chief General Eleazer, he’s been doing a lot of encouraging things. When you say encouraging, there’s a feeling that they are acknowledging the problem and they are working on a solution),” she noted.

Robredo also praised Eleazar for giving DOJ access not only to the investigation cases that showed its personnel have been found to have administrative and criminal liability, but to all the drug war-related deaths.

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/29/robredo-lauds-pnp-for-giving-doj-drug-war-records/

Last week, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the PNP agreed to open 61 cases where its Internal Affairs Service has already found liability on the part of law enforcers.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has long wanted to access these files, but Eleazar said it is up to the DOJ if it wants to share the documents with the commission.

Robredo lamented that the institution has suffered because of the extrajudicial killings, although the new PNP chief’s actions will bring back the public’s confidence in the police.

“Sana tuloy-tuloy para maayos naman, mastrengthen iyong institution, malinis ‘yung magandang pangalan (Hopefully, this will continue so it will be well, it will strengthen the institution, and clean up its good name),” the vice president said.