Police officers laud Duterte’s War on Drugs
Police officers lauded President Duterte’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs for the decreasing number of drug-related cases in a span of five months.
Police Chief Inspector Rolando Baula of the Pasay Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said more than 4,000 drug syndicates, users and pushers have surrendered to the Pasay City police since the start of the campaign against drugs of the current administration.
Baula said surenderees are placed in the custody of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Concil and are given the opportunity to work again by taking technical vocational courses under the supervision of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
“Dati hindi bumababa ng 60 [drug-involved] detainees dito whereas ngayon, simula nang maupo si Presidente Duterte, nagkaroon tayo ng malaking pagbabago in terms sa number of detainees namin.” Baula said.
He said, from 60 drug-involved detainees in the previous administration, the number decreased to 10 - 25 during the current administration.
Cavite Special Police Officer 2 Nestor Ricardo claimed that aside from the Philippine National Police’s Oplan Tokhang is the Double Barrel strategy, which targets both “high and low value targets.”
The police chief inspector added that through President Duterte’s initiative the government’s campaign against illegal drugs led law offenders to have second thoughts in committing crimes.
Ricardo credited the low number of crimes to the administration saying that most crimes are related to the illegal use of drugs. “Sa dami ng mga taong nahuli sa paggamit at pagtulak ng ilegal na droga, halos lahat ng kulungan ay puno na,” he added.
Ricardo also said the government is currently working with precincts to address the problem.
“Usually, mga lower class ang mga nahuhulihan ng droga. Madalas yung mga walang trabaho, madalas silang nanghoholdup at nagnanakaw,” said Baula.
Snatchers, thieves and the unemployed were mostly responsible for the statistics they have recorded, according to Baula.
“Nais nilang takasan ang kahirapan, at ang droga ang kanilang takbuhan. [T]aliwas sa katotohanan ay nagiging biktima pa sila nito,” Ricardo said.
As of December 3, the police have conducted 37,626 operations, 38,999 drug personality arrests, and 4, 473, 805 house visits through Oplan TokHang. A total of 834,487 surrenders has been made to the police.
A total of 5,800 deaths were tallied from combined numbers of extrajudicial killings and legitimate police operations. 2,000 died during police operations and 3,800 died from vigilante killings.###
