By: Eoghan Olkeriil Ngirudelsang
Koror, Palau – Jennifer S. Olegeriil, Presidential nominee for the Minister of Justice post faced the Senate for more than 2 hours in a confirmation hearing on Tuesday. The Senate committee of Judiciary and Governmental Affairs (JGA) conducted the hearing and asked questions related to the country’s law enforcement efforts.
Submitting 24 pages answer to the questionnaire initially sent to her by the senate, Olegeriil told the senators that all her career life had been spent around the field of law enforcement. She is 56 years old and had more than 32 years of public service career both in the Ministry of Justice and Koror State Government dealing with security and protection of natural resources and persons and property.
The most pervasive issue during the confirmation hearing was the ever increasing drug problem in Palau. Answering the very first question asked in the hearing which was about the drug problem in Palau, Olegeriil stated that the set of questions are interlinked and that the drug problem in Palau must be approached holistically and approached collectively. The nominee stated “We have to look at our borders, we have to look at customs border and protection control”. “We must look at our legislation framework. Are our current legislations stiff enough?” Are the jail times and penalties stiff enough to act as deterrents to eliminate repeat offenders”. We must also look at the little things such as unauthorized vehicles accessing our schools”. She further said “Persons in the law enforcement should be held at a higher standard and with high penalties equivalent to the level of accountability they responsibility they hold”.
In response to a question about trust in police officers from the public, Olegeriil stated that a most police officers are good cops. She said that to earn back that public trust there must be strong community policing, foot patrols, effective responding to reports, raising awareness, timely case transmittals and case management and police officers being held at a higher standard such as police officers who violate laws and take drugs will be terminated.
Olegeriil will need a minimum of 10 votes of confidence to be confirmed as minister of Justice. The confirmation hearing of a Minister of Justice nominee is a rare sight because if confirmed, Olegeriil will be one of the few instances where the Minister of Justice is not the Vice President. The last minister of justice who was not vice president was more than a decade ago.