(FLICKR / FILE PHOTO)
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Thursday night, March 11, said there has been a determination that the killings fall under the jurisdiction of Administrative Order (AO) 35 that created the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
“The DOJ will endorse the investigation to the AO 35 committee, as there is sufficient evidence that the victims were members of cause-oriented groups carrying out legitimate dissent,” Guevarra said.
AO 35 was issued in 2012 by then President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III.
Aside from the DOJ as lead agency, AO35 inter-agency committee is composed of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of National Defense (DND), Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Director of the National Bureau of Investigation