Acting Justice Secretary Agnes VST Devanadera today vowed to work on a revitalized Department of Justice (DOJ).

In simple turnover ceremonies witnessed by DOJ officials and employees, Devanadera called on to prosecutors to give priority to their functions of resolving with dispatch preliminary investigation and prosecution of criminal cases well within the period of sixty (60) days as provided by existing internal policies.

She also instructed prosecutors to give special attention to certain cases which are focus of the government’s effort to rid criminality. “These are cases that are not only being monitored in our country today but by international bodies as well,” Devanadera said.

“We shall again pursue the things that we have done before under the general program of Bantay Katarungan by working on specific groups of cases. Again, we shall focus on media killings which includes the Dacer-Corbito murder case. We shall also focus on human trafficking because the number of cases are increasing by the day and by the month. Our efforts will also focus on anti-drugs cases.”

The Acting Justice Secretary also instructed state counsels to render timely and well-studied legal opinions to government functionaries. She tasked Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III to implement the zero-backlog policy in drafting legal opinions.

Devanadera is the 50th Justice Secretary since the DOJ was founded in 1897.

“The DOJ’s twin functions as the prosecutorial arm and at the same time as the government’s attorney-general should serve as the rallying point in fulfilling our principal mandate of rendering an impartial and expeditious administration of justice to the people,” Devanadera said.

The Acting Justice Secretary also vowed to pursue the reforms that her predecessor, then Justice Secretary and now Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul M. Gonzalez, has started. Devanadera stressed that her administration’s priority would be reforming operational processes in the National Prosecution Service (NPS) and the Legal Staff for enhanced and improved performance.

“These reforms include the computerization of monitoring and management mechanism that would result to greater efficiency, improved time management and saving manpower,” Devanadera pointed out.

“I will be asking every head of office to set targets so that at least they would know what to achieve. Even if we cannot resolve everything during my stint as Secretary of Justice, at least, I would like everyone to achieve their respective targets,” Devanadera added.

The Acting Justice Secretary’s experience as an administrator started since she became mayor of Sampaloc, Quezon after which she was elected President of Municipalities of the Philippines. Her management background has helped her in successfully implementing reforms in subsequent offices she occupied, first as then Interior Local Government Undersecretaries in 2003 and later on as the Government Corporate Counsel in 2004, and now as Solicitor General in a concurrent capacity with her being the Justice Secretary.

“The electronic Prosecution Case Management System (ePCMS) will connect all NPS offices to enable real time monitoring of case status,” Devanadera declared. “The ePCMS will also build a database of criminal cases subject of investigation and prosecution.” She added that other application system will be implemented on the monitoring and management of legal opinions being handled by the Legal Staff.

In keeping with the Moral Renewal Program of the government, other reform programs being supported by the incoming Acting Secretary are the following: formulation of Performance Standards and Evaluation of Prosecutors and the State Counsels and the Code of Conduct for Prosecutors and State Counsels.