Carbon cops visit 19 houses in Ermita to kick off Tokhang

Chief Insp. Jacinto Mandal of the Carbon Police Precinct leads the Oplan Tokhang team in visiting houses of drug personalities in Barangay Ermita as a kick off of the third edition of the operation to convince drug personalities to stop their illegal activities.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

This time there were no hearses carrying coffins inside and no announcements in a PA system about warning suspected drug pushers or personalities about the risk of getting killed if they would continue with their illegal activities.

That was the Oplan Tokhang of 2017. This time around, police officers around the country simultaneously started this year’s version of the Oplan Tokhang.

For the Carbon Police Precinct officers, its precinct chief, Chief Insp. Jacinto Mandal, led five of the police officers in visiting suspected drug personalities in Barangay Ermita, marking the start of the revived operation.

The group of five police officers were accompanied by the media, some representatives from the religious sector and members of the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Badac).

Mandal said that they visited 19 houses, which were on the Badac list of suspected drug personalities in the barangay.

He said the list included four suspected street level pushers and the rest suspected drug users.

Oplan Tokhang started at 8:30 a.m. for the Carbon Police Precinct’s Oplan Tokhang team, five police officers mostly women police personnel and a team leader, said Mandal.

He also said that in the houses they visited, most of the suspected drug personalities were not there and so the team spoke with their families that were at the house at that time.

Ermita Barangay Captain Mark Rizaldy Miral was also present during the operation and noticed that this was only a visit to convince drug personalities to stop their illegal activities.

Mandal also noticed that that some of the drug personalities they visited showed that they had indeed stopped their illegal activities.
He said that he would ask the Badac to reevaluate these persons and update the list.

Chief Supt. Robert Quenery, Regional Police Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, said that the Tokhang team must follow the new guidelines given by Camp Crame in implementing the operation.

Quenery also encouraged suspected drug personalities to surrender and stop their illegal drug activities.

The guidelines for the Tokhang team include prohibiting the team from entering the houses that they would visit and not to chase drug personalities, who would try to escape them during their visits.

He said violation of the Tokhang guidelines of the Tokhang team would lead to the relief of the erring police officer.

Monday’s relaunch of Oplan Tokhang is the operation’s third wave.

It was suspended last October, days after President Rodrigo Duterte directed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the lead agency to solely conduct anti-illegal drug operations amid criticisms on the Caloocan City Police for killing three minors.