The Philippines and India have made significant progress on the forging of treaties that would include mutual legal assistance in criminal cases and transfer of convicted persons, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
In a statement, the DOJ said its Office of the Chief State Counsel hosted the first round of talks held in Manila from Aug. 25 to 28. Representatives of both countries attended the meetings.
“The negotiations made significant progress, with only a few issues to be threshed out,” the DOJ said.
It pointed out that the proposed Treaty on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TTSP) and Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (MLAT) will “complement the Treaty on Extradition between Philippines and India, signed in 2004.”
It explained that the TTSP would “allow citizens convicted of crimes in another country to serve their remaining sentence in their own countries.”
“This will facilitate their effective rehabilitation, being close to their families and friends and be with other inmates with whom they share the same language, culture, customs and religion,” it stressed.
“Under the proposed TTSP, Filipino and Indian prisoners may be transferred to their home countries to serve their remaining sentences,” it added.
MLAT, on the other hand, is “the process by which a state conducting investigation or prosecution of criminal cases or related proceedings requests legal assistance from another state, the most common of which, includes obtaining evidence or taking voluntary statements from persons, confiscation or forfeiture of property or proceeds of crime,” the DOJ said.
“MLAT requests are key to obtaining evidence and confiscating illegal proceeds of crime located outside the state where the crime was committed,” it explained.
The DOJ started talks with its counterparts in India in line with the directives issued by President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The Philippines is represented in the talks by Chief State Counsel Dennis Arvin L. Chan, Assistant Chief State Counsel Mildred Bernadette B. Alvor, Senior State Counsel Grace L. Estrada, State Counsel Dave Florenz M. Fatalla, and Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) lawyer Eloisa Katrina V. Madamba.
India’s delegation is led by Ministry of Home Affairs Director Rakesh Kumar Pandey and representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and the Embassy of India in Manila.