DOJ: High conviction rate of human trafficking cases

The Department of Justice (DOJ) was able to post a 95 percent increase in the conviction rates of human trafficking cases in 2018.

“In terms of conviction, we have attained the highest conviction rate in the history of our Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act which is 119 convictions,” revealed Undersecretary Emmeline Villar during the sidelines of the 5th Manila International Dialogue on Human Trafficking held at the Manila Hotel.

“It was a 95 percent increase from the 2017 data,” boasted Villar who is also the Undersecretary-In-Charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

The Undersecretary attributed the increase to the training provided to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.

“Our evidence collection is not really very good. We are left with evidence that was not able to convict beyond reasonable doubt,” she lamented.

“So what we did is we increased our efforts to provide training to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation), to the PNP (Philippine National Police (PNP), to our prosecutors, to those conducting the investigation and collecting the evidence and this has helped greatly,” Villar said.

With the training, she boasted the convictions are made “without a victim witness.”

“Mas maingat sila sa pagkokolekta ng ebidensya (They are now more careful in collecting evidence),” Villar explained.

“They are trained to look at what needs to be collected so that they won’t need the testimony of the witness in order to secure a conviction,” she added.