Supreme Court to investigate PDEA claims 13 judges, 10 prosecutors have drug links

April 8, 2019

Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin on Monday ordered an investigation into a report of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency ( PDEA) that 13 judges and 10 prosecutors are allegedly involved in illegal drugs,

Bersamin appointed Associate Diosdado Peralta to look into this matter.

“The allegations came out directly from the Office of the President, so we should not ignore it, so we thought of assigning Justice Peralta to look into this matter,” Bersamin told reporters after the flag raising ceremony in Baguio, where the Supreme Court is holding its summer session.

“It’s not a small thing for anyone to accuse sitting judges of violations as serious as drug-related ones,” Bersamin stressed.

Peralta will coordinate with PDEA its head, Director General Aaron Aquino, claimed 13 judges and 10 prosecutors, who are not identified, are among those in its narco-list.

“Every time that the Executive Department, media, or any other quarter reporting something about misbehaving judges, the Supreme Court automatically looks into it,” Bersamin said. “So it was only natural for the Supreme Court to assign one of its most senior members to look into these allegations and if there are any bases for these allegations then we would proceed against the judges concerned,” he added. Bersamin said the High Tribunal will give Peralta time to look into the the PDEA's claims. "We will give him all the time and we will not rush things because these are serious allegations that we cannot just ignore. And at the same time, we cannot just condemn our judges so readily without basis. So we have to go slowly,” Bersamin said. The Supreme Court begun an investigation on four narco judges tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016: Exequil Dagala of Dapa-Socorro, Surigao, Adriano Savillo of Iloilo City, Domingo Casiple of Aklan and Antonio Reyes of Baguio City. After probe by a special fact-finding panel led by retired associate justice Roberto Abad, the Court ordered administrative investigation against Reyes while it cleared three other judges. DMS