The Supreme Court’s order to the PNP to submit their report on the Oplan Tokhang operations in the country came amid a successful roundup of drug suspects by the Cebu police during the Holy Week observance.
About 165 of them were arrested and of that number 140 of them were caught from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday. Among the suspects were one well-off college student, one security guard and a relative of the late drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.
Of those arrested, the stories of Customs Administration student Orpheus Pangilinan and security guard Mario de Jesus presented interesting case studies that should give the PNP more pause in its calibration of its anti-drug operations in the country.
Despite having a family that owned apartments and provided him with a P30,000 to P40,000 monthly allowance, Pangilinan somehow still decided to sell shabu to earn what he called “easy money.”
He may justify his sideline with the excuse that he had a common-law partner which he could not support with his allowance alone. For Pangilinan, the lure of “easy money,” triumphed over the practicality and stability offered by an honest job, no matter how small and tedious it may be.
That lure is explained by “Kiko,” who sold illegal drugs during his student days and whose father and three brothers were engaged in selling illegal drugs. “I grew up watching my father deal with customers. I was told that if we do this well, we can go up the ladder and become “big time.” Then we will be very rich,” he told Cebu Daily News.
There may be some understanding as to why Kiko and de Jesus, a former security guard and overseas worker who was caught in last week’s operations, resorted to selling illegal drugs to augment their income.
Poverty, after all, can force desperate people to do desperate things. But when it is well-off people who are found to be selling drugs, then something is definitely wrong here.
Hence the Supreme Court order that was voted on unanimously to require the PNP to disclose the full details of their Oplan Tokhang operations in order to see not only if it is being done in accordance with the law but also whether the police are only targeting the small fry while neglecting the big fish.
Pangilinan may not be a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination but he is an example of how the drug menace is being perpetuated not only by small time pushers who want a better life but also the rich and powerful that can afford to escape prosecution and hide their tracks well behind a veil of respectability.
That and whether it is possible for the police to justify their high body count despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s blanket order for them to shoot without hesitation any drug suspect they deem to be resisting arrest should also be considered by the public which had been polarized by the relentless war on drugs.
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