The region’s police officers are raring to go back to their routine of pursuing those involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) chief, said they welcomed the proposal of President Rodrigo Duterte to make them the frontliners again in the government’s war on drugs.
“We will just continue our operation under the Oplan Double Barrel,” Espino said.
Duterte announced in a press briefing last week that he would return jurisdiction over his controversial war on drugs to the police if the drug problem would become worse.
Espino said that it would not be a problem to them to again pursue those in the illegal drug trade if given the go-signal to do so.
He said that despite not being the lead agency in the war on drugs in the past few months, they had not stopped monitoring drug personalities in the region.
Last October, Duterte transferred the role of taking the lead in the war on illegal drugs from the police to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) due to the criticisms against the police over their drug operations where teenagers were killed.
Aside from that, Espino also called on the Muslim communities in Central Visayas to help the police in the war against drugs and on thwarting the threats of terrorism.
He made the call during a forum conducted by PRO-7 and leaders of the Muslim communities in the region discussing illegal drugs and terrorism with the Muslims.
“We should give credit to the Muslim community of Central Visayas because only few are reported to be involved in selling drugs to people,” Espino said.
He also encouraged the Muslims to take action if they knew someone who is involved in the drug trade.
He also discussed the threats of terrorism and how extremists like the Maute group and ISIS had been targeting members of the Muslim community to become their recruits.
Malo Manongiring, regional director of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos-Visayas, who also attended the forum, said that what those terrorists are doing are not in Islam.
“What they are doing to our country, you can’t find them in the Bible, Torah, or even in the Quran. They are taking the wrong way on what the Quran is teaching us,” Manongiring said.
Espino and Manongiring also reminded the Muslim community to be vigilant and to be always on the lookout of suspicious activities that might be linked to terrorism.