DOJ is ‘corroded’ within —Justice chief Guevarra

The new Secretary of Justice believes the controversy-laden department he now leads is “somehow corroded inside,” a situation he intends to fix as he takes over the post of resigned Vitaliano Aguirre II.

Addressing employees of the Department of Justice (DOJ) during Monday morning’s flag ceremony, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the DOJ suffers from a “huge image problem,” its “structural integrity” dubious.

“Now I hate to say that our department, as well as most agencies attached to it, is suffering from a huge image problem. The imposing building remains the same but it’s somehow corroded inside. It looks solid but it’s structural integrity is suspect, both literally and metaphorically,” he said.

“So it is my personal mission to restore the DOJ’s dignified and respectable image to make it a cornerstone and not a mere pillar of our Justice system,” he said.

He reiterated President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for him to “do what is right.” The President appointed him to replace Aguirre who stepped down from office on April 5, less than a month after news broke out that DOJ prosecutors had cleared several drug personalities of charges filed by the police.

Guevarra, a former senior deputy executive secretary, appealed to DOJ employees to begin an “inner revolution” of their values to achieve an attitude that prioritizes public interest, particularly that of the “underprivileged and the oppressed ... “over and above our individual self-interests.”

“I know I may be asking for the moon or I may be asking too late in the day, but I still believe in miracles,” he said.

He has said a review of previous DOJ actions on the cases involving self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa and involving alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles were his “top priority” apart from organizing his team.

While his predecessor Aguirre made occasional comments on pressing issues that are the subject of news coverages, Guevarra emphasized he believes he “should be the last person to talk about matters under consideration.”

That politics is “out of the consideration” while he is Justice secretary is an idea which he re-asserted on Monday. “I have absolutely no agenda, political or otherwise. My only ambition is to do my job well and then retire in the private company of my grandchildren,” he said.

“As a professional lawyer I make my decision based on facts, my choices based on merit and everything else based on the rule of law, with lots of compassion on the side,” Guevarra noted. —VDS, GMA News