State of emergency won’t be lifted yet – Bato

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa is not yet recommending the lifting of the state of emergency imposed nationwide as this was linked to the campaign against illegal drugs.

Dela Rosa said that for as long as the illegal drug trade poses a real threat to the country, he would not ask for the suspension of that status.

President Duterte placed the entire country under a state of emergency on account of lawless violence following the bombing of Davao City’s night market, which left 15 people dead and 70 injured last Sept. 2.

In a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday, Dela Rosa said there is still a lot to be done in the war against illegal drugs.

“The threat is linked to our war on drugs, as of now I cannot advise the President to lift the state of lawlessness,” Dela Rosa said.

Six months, he added, is not enough time to really clear the country of the illegal drug menace.

Although more than 720,000 drug users or pushers have surrendered to the police, Dela Rosa said this is still far from the target 1.8 million.

He admitted that the government wants to provide adequate rehabilitation centers for drug addicts.

Some local government units, he added, are taking the initiative of establishing rehabilitation centers for their constituents.

He advised barangay units to continue monitoring residents who have previously surrendered and admitted to being drug users or pushers.

Duterte earlier projected a total of four million Filipinos hooked on drugs by the end of the year.

As for the reduction in drug volume, Dela Rosa said the police were effective in cutting supply by 70 percent to 80 percent, adding that the street value of shabu has gone up by at least 300 percent.

He also promised to work on show business personalities who may be involved in the illicit trade.

He was supposed to get this list when Duterte inspected a shabu laboratory in Arayat, Pampanga early this week but the President reportedly asked him to wait until he comes back from a working visit in Vietnam.

Erring policemen

Dela Rosa warned erring policemen involved in illegal drugs that they could be shot.

He said the solution for police scalawags is not Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead), wherein law enforcers knock on doors of drug offenders and ask them to surrender.

The President has said that about 11,000 policemen and 16,000 barangay offcials are involved in illegal drugs.

“They are policemen. Why would you subject them to Tokhang? It should be Tok-bang. You knock and then bang. That’s how it should be,” Dela Rosa told Malacañang reporters in jest yesterday.

“They are policemen. They should have behaved properly. They should not have been involved in drugs,” he added.

Dela Rosa said the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service is now investigating the policemen with alleged drug links.

He admitted that the PNP still has a lot of work to do with regard to its illegal drugs crackdown.

“Our new target is 1.8 million surrenderees, including those who were neutralized, arrested or killed,” the PNP chief said.

“We now have about 720,000 surrenderees and add to that the 15,000 persons who were arrested. We also have those who were killed in police operations. We still have to do more in the demand side,” he added.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is building up cases against at least 50 local government officials that Duterte had earlier linked to illegal drugs.

DILG Undersecretary John Castriciones, head of Task Force Agila, said several teams are gathering evidence against what they call “Persons of Intest” from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

TF Agila, the composite group of top officials from the DILG, National Police Commission (Napolcom) and the PNP has been conducting discreet investigations on the concerned politicians.

Castriciones admitted that there are dangerous complications involved in their probe, as some individuals maintain private armed groups.

“There are reports that some local executives named by the President are being protected by notorious armed groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters or BIFF,” said Castriciones.

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno had ordered Castriciones and TF Agila to observe due process in conducting the investigation.  – With Alexis Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe