Inmates at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) are encouraged to stay away from drugs. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
The police yesterday brought the Oplan Tokhang to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) to encourage inmates to stay away from illegal drugs.
Although they are behind bars, a number of inmates still use illegal drugs as shown by the illegal substances and paraphernalia recovered inside the different jail facilities in the country, said Senior Insp. Zosimo Jabas Jr., the team leader of the Cebu Provincial Public Safety Company which helps secure the provincial jail.
“The government is serious in eliminating illegal drugs — the priority target of President Rodrigo Duterte. It’s a fact that there are inmates who still use illegal drugs even inside the jail. And so we urged you to stop and instead cooperate with us,” he told around 500 inmates who were among the first batch to undergo the Oplan Tokhang.
The campaign involved policemen knocking on houses of drug suspects and asking them to surrender.
Bringing the Oplan Tokhang to the CPDRC, Jabas said, is a modified version of the program, bearing the same intention to stop the spread of illegal drugs.
Inmates were asked to voluntarily sign a pledge that they would end their involvement in illegal drugs. They also submit their resume and fingerprints for profiling.
Jabas reminded the inmates that their pledge to renew their lives didn’t end with signing documents.
“They must be sincere. We’re not doing this just for compliance’s sake. We’re serious in our campaign,” he said.
The CPDRC currently has 3,008 inmates, 60 percent of whom are facing drugs charges in court.
Jabas said they will monitor the inmates to make sure they will stop using illegal drugs.
“The Oplan Tokhang is a continuing program. We will monitor the surrenderers to make sure they won’t go back to their old ways.”
High-value inmates, including suspected drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro, the number one drug lord in the province of Cebu, will undergo a separate Oplan Tokhang program for security purposes.
“We shall conduct a separate session for them in order not to compromise their security,” Jabas said.
Lito Granada, the head of all the inmates at the CPDRC, encouraged prisoners who are into illegal drugs to cooperate with the police.
“What will happen to you if you will promise to stop using illegal drugs and yet you don’t do it? You should stop using drugs for you, your family, and your future,” he told the other inmates in Cebuano.
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