Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra rallied all officials and employees of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for continued support “to the tasks that my management team need to finish before the change of administration.”

Guevarra’s plea was aired during the first flag-raising ceremony held Monday morning, March 7, since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in March 2020.

He said he decided to hold the flag raising ceremony now that the government placed the National Capital Region (NCR) under Alert Level 1 with eased restrictions.

“After two years. we waited for Alert Level 1 to ensure the safety of our employees,” he explained.

He expressed his gratitude to all DOJ officials and employees “for bringing the DOJ to the top of the trust ratings among government agencies, based on a survey conducted by the RP-Mission and Development Foundation in the NCR last July.”

Also, during the flag-raising ceremony, Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay Villar, whose resignation is to take effect on March 21, delivered her farewell speech. She opted to resign to help her husband, then Public Works Secretary Mark Villar, in his senatorial bid.

“One of the reasons why I accepted the appointment as an Undersecretary of the Department of Justice is because I knew that it will be challenging and I believe that the only way for us to grow is to go through challenges,” she said.

Villar recounted that when she entered the DOJ there was a large volume of work that had built up including matters that were pending since 2013.

“I was challenged by the inefficient systems and ineffective ways of doing things in the units under me that have caused the huge backlog, the failure to harness the potential of the people, and to provide the best service to the public,” she said.

“And, as a working mom, I was challenged by the less and less time I was able to spend with my daughter,” she added.

But she said that “overcoming the challenges that we face is what makes our journey more meaningful.”

She cited that was able to slowly “wipeout the backlog in my office, and then worked with the heads of the units assigned to me in order to improve the systems and ways of doing things that resulted in the faster disposal of matters and eventual elimination of overdue matters.”

“We made effective use of the talent and skills of our officials and workers, and this resulted to better service and more people helped,” she added.

Villar noted that these improvements were “reflected in the numbers of rescues, of investigations, of people served, of cases filed, of convictions, of documents accomplished and released.”

As she leaves the DOJ with improvements in place, Villar declared: “I can confidently say: I am no longer needed here.”