P900-M Tokhang funds not as big as people think

MANILA, Philippines — Oplan Tokhang may have been reloaded with P900 million in funds for 2018, but Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said the amount will just trickle down to a few thousand pesos when it reaches the police stations.

Dela Rosa said the P900-million fund for Tokhang, the PNP’s flagship campaign against illegal drugs that was approved by the House of Representatives, will not be as big as people think, even as he justified the need for the fund to contain the drug problem in the country.

Dela Rosa said P900 million would be divided among all police stations nationwide through 12 months of 2018.
“That has to be distributed from top to bottom so if we trickle it down, it would only translate to a few thousand pesos every month,” he said.

In its official website, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed there were 81 provinces, 145 cities and 1,489 municipalities as of March 31, 2016.
The PNP sought funds to specifically fund Tokhang to effectively carry out the anti-illegal drugs war, most of the funds will cover the operational expenses of policemen.

The amount is part of the proposed P131.3-billion budget for the PNP next year. The proposed budget is nearly P20 billion more than this year’s P111.6 billion and P43 billion more than P88.5 billion in 2016.

The PNP has been under fire following the spate of killings of teenagers in the war against drugs.