Dad says no to plea not to fire drug-using tanod

TUMULAK

LABANGON BRGY CHIEF’S REQUEST

Should a barangay tanod who has been using drugs be saved from sanctions just because he said he only did so during undercover operations as a police asset?

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor on police matters, does not think so.

He said this reason is “unacceptable.”

“The barangay tanods are frontliners in ensuring peace and order. Where is the trust and confidence of the people in them (if they do drugs)?” Tumulak said in a press briefing yesterday.

Tumulak made the pronouncement after Acting Labangon Barangay Captain Zenaida Amores wrote him a letter making the request.

In her letter, Amores sought an appointment with the councilor to discuss the situation of one of their barangay tanods who was found positive during a surprise drug test conducted by the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP) earlier this month.

“According to him (tanod), he needs to be involved in illegal drugs sometimes in order to be more credible to the users and get information from them in return since he is being used by the police as an asset,” Amores said in her letter to Tumulak.

It was earlier agreed that those barangay workers, who are found and proven to be illegal drugs users should be terminated by the barangay.

This is part of a pending evaluation being conducted by the city following Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s suspension of the incentives for barangay tanods and garbage loaders from the city government.

Amores would have wanted to retain the barangay tanod.

But Tumulak firmly said no.

“It’s just like accepting the drug addiction of their worker,” he said.

Tumulak said that barangay tanods should not be used by the police as assets in the campaign against illegal drugs because the police should get their own assets, who are not workers of the barangay.

Tumulak also said that as far as he knows, the police do not encourage their assets to engage and do illegal drugs themselves.

Meanwhile, Amores, when sought for comment about Tumulak’s decision, said she would follow it.

She said she was told by the tanod that he was an asset of the Punta Princesa Police Station which would also coordinate with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during drug raids.

Amores also said that the tanod did not deny using illegal drugs.

“If that is the judgment (of Tumulak), I will just follow any order. We will enroll him (tanod) in a rehabilitation program,” she told Cebu Daily News in a telephone interview.

Aside from the tanod, there were also four garbage loaders, one maintenance staff and another tanod who was found positive during the drug test.

All of them did not deny the results. All of them will also be brought by the barangay to the Liloan town and enroll them in the center-based drug rehabilitation program there called Surrender to God (Sugod) by today, Amores said.

Amores added that by the month of April, all the seven workers will already be removed from the barangay’s payroll.