PEOPLE involved in the illegal drug trade are encouraged to surrender to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City Police Office chief, made this call amid the controversy arising from the death of 17-year-old boy in a police operation in Caloocan City.
Doria said that they were affected by the reactions of what happened to Grade 11 student Kian Delos Santos, who was shot dead by police officers during a One Time Big Time operation there.
“We’re not affected because our morale is high here because of the successful legitimate police operations we had done here,” said Doria in Filipino.
Doria said that the mandate of the police is to arrest suspects involved in the illegal drug trade, but if duty calls and there is a threat on the lives of the police officers and the public then they would have to defend themselves.
“For us, we always put first our personnel’s safety, and next is respect for human rights. Those are our priority during police operations,” said Doria in Filipino.
He cited the several firearms recovered during the operations without any armed encounter between the persons arrested.
Doria said that what happened in Caloocan where Kian was killed was an isolated case.
On the possibility that the P900 million budget for the Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded would be cut, Doria said they would still continue with their war against illegal drugs.
He said that with or without the P900 million budget, they would continue to do their jobs.