PNP mulls ‘tokhang’ for barangay execs in narco list

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) is planning to conduct Oplan Tokhang on barangay officials, following the narco list made public by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last Monday.

“That’s one option. We can visit them since they are in the watchlist,” PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said yesterday.

The PNP has credited the Tokhang program for the surrender of at least 1.3 million suspected drug offenders.

Tokhang, which means knock and plead in Cebuano, is the police operation where lawmen visit the houses of drug suspects and ask them to stop their illegal activities and reform.

Albayalde said the 207 barangay officials in the PDEA list are not exempted from Tokhang operations.

“We have been doing that so what makes them so special, even if they are elected officials,” he said. “There are no sacred cows here, whether you are an elected official or not.”

Barangay officials who refuse to cooperate and those directly selling illegal drugs will be subject to a case buildup.

“We gather evidence and if it’s really positive, then we can always apply for a search warrant against them,” Albayalde said.

He said they will also support the PDEA in gathering evidence that would warrant the filing of administrative cases against the erring barangay officials.

PDEA director general Aaron Aquino earlier said they are eyeing a lifestyle check on barangay officials included in the narco list.

“We will file cases through a financial investigation, but it’s a longer process,” he said over dzMM on Tuesday.

The PNP has its list of barangay officials suspected of involvement in illegal drugs in each region. Their list contains more names than those PDEA has named.

In Western Mindanao, the regional police listed 39 barangay captains and 73 kagawads or village councilors involved in illegal drugs.

Regional police director Chief Supt. Billy Beltran said the number of barangay officials involved in drugs in the region is more than the list of PDEA, which has only four barangay chairmen and four councilors in the region.

The provincial police in Sorsogon said there are a total of 105 barangay officials involved in drugs.

Sorsogon provincial police director Senior Supt. Marlon Tejada said there are five incumbent barangay captains involved while eight barangay captain aspirants, 84 barangay officials with 32 incumbents and 52 new barangay kagawad candidates as well as four Sangguniang Kabataan chairmen and four SK councilors are in the drug watch list.

In Region 1, around 384 candidates for barangay and SK elections are reportedly involved in drugs.

Regional police director Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula said of the 384 aspirants involved in drugs, 69 are vying for barangay captain, 304 for barangay kagawad, six for SK chairman and five for SK kagawad.

“This includes users, pushers or in one way or another, they have involvement in illegal drugs,” he said.

“There’s a big difference between our list and that of the PDEA because in ours, it’s very many while theirs is very little,” Sapitula said. 

Sapitula said their data showed Ilocos Norte has six barangay captains, 33 kagawad candidates in illegal drugs while Ilocos Sur has 12 barangay captains, 91 barangay kagawads, three SK chairmen and two SK kagawads involved.

He added La Union has 10 aspirants for barangay captain, 20 for barangay kagawad and one SK chairman involved in illegal drugs.

Sapitula said Pangasinan has 42 bets for barangay captain, 162 for barangay kagawad, two SK chairman and three SK kagawad in illegal drugs.

Sapitula added they would release the names of candidates with drug links after further validation is made within five days.

“This is already validated but I told them validate some more, or further validation to be made,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the PNP has recorded 15 violent incidents in the run-up to the barangay and SK elections on May 14.

Albayalde said some of the election-related incidents took place in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Abra.

“These are suspected although we strongly believe these are election-related,” he said.

Albayalde did not give figures on the number of casualties. It was earlier reported that nine people have been killed in violent incidents related to the elections since April 14. – With Eva Visperas, Roel Pareño, Celso Amo, Gilbert Bayoran