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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
HE Department of Justice (DOJ) is missing
several case records, besides inheriting the voluminous backlog of
the administration of then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
DOJ Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard
Anthony Fadullon admitted to the Manila Times that some case records
cannot be located at the moment, nor were they surrendered by the
staff of Justice Secretary on leave Raul Gonzalez.
Fadullon and Asst. Chief State Prosecutor Miguel
Gudio Jr. are the persons designated by Acting Justice Secretary
Agnes Devanadera to order the inventory of all the cases at the
department.
Fadullon said that there are around 4,000
petitions for review of cases that are now subject of a DOJ
inventory.
Records of at least three cases are now
confirmed missing, but Fadullon did not disclose the title of these
cases.
Gudio himself submitted to Devanadera the
Memorandum of the summary report of the appealed cases at the DOJ
from 1997 up to September 25, 2007.
“In compliance with the Acting Secretary’s
verbal instruction, attached herewith is the breakdown of pending
petitions for review and motions for reconsideration as per
available record of the NPS docket section,” the memorandum says.
It was recorded that from January 1 to September
25, out of the 2,337 cases received by the DOJ, only 189 were
resolved. The total number of pending cases now reaches 2,148. In
2006, out of the 3,007 cases received by the DOJ, only 1,054
were resolved, and some 1,953 remain pending.
In 2005, the DOJ has 2,734 cases on appeal, and
the total number of pending cases is 1,735. Only 999 cases were
resolved in that year.
The oldest cases pending at the DOJ dates back
to 1997. Out of the 2,083 cases received in this year, only 26 cases
remain unresolved.
Gonzalez’s secretary Priscilla Grey admitted
to the Times that there are cases ordered to be set aside and given
special attention. These include the controversial drug case of
suspected Pasig shabu tiangge operator Imam Boratong who appealed
his case to the DOJ and asked that his court indictment be reversed
and set aside.
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