IT’S back to square one for the police precincts implementing “Oplan TokHang” (Toktok Hangyo) in Central Visayas as they were ordered to repeat the processing of self-confessed drug users and pushers.
Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO-7) deputy director for operations, said they found out that majority of the 126 police precincts in the region didn’t document or get the profile of the surrenderers.
They also failed to secure from self-confessed drug users and pushers “vital” information which is part of Oplan TokHang.
“We have procedures to follow, and one of them is to reveal anything they know about illegal drugs operations in their place. It’s like surrendering the information you know,” Lawas said.
Based on the records of PRO-7, about 46,000 drug users and pushers surrendered to police stations in the region since Oplan TokHang was launched last July 1.
TokHang is short for “toktok-hangyo,” a nationwide campaign of the Philippine National Police to persuade illegal drug peddlers and users to surrender lest they face sanctions.
“It’s not that they surrender and after that no more. Oplan TokHang is not like showbiz wherein you just project something like this but feels the other way around,” Lawas said.
In Sogod town, the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) screened 240 self-confessed drug pushers and users who surrendered there since last Monday.
Of the 240 who surrendered, 229 were recommended for residential rehabilitation while 11 were classified as out-patients.
Most of them were males aged 15 to 55 years old./Ateneo de Manila University Intern Maria Lelaina R. Cardeño
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