Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa has ordered the stoppage of the ‘Oplan Tokhang’, turning-over the anti-drug operations campaign to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
According to PNP Directorate of Operations chief Director Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, the PNP chief released a directive of the termination of all its drug enforcement units (DEU).
“For this matter, all DEUs from police regional offices down to police stations are hereby dissolved,” Cascolan said.
“You may convert the DEUs to Detectives/Police Intel operatives responsible for detection, prevention and solution of street crimes. Just be advised to vet properly your members,” Cascolan added, reminding the police station chiefs.
As directed by PNP chief, Cascolan stated that “everyone shall focus on the significant decrease, if not stopped, of this street crime (riding in tandem, motorcycle riding suspects and shooting incidents).”
Cascolan, however, clarified that the said directive shall henceforth just be the focus of evaluation.
Moreover, according to Cascolan, the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) was ordered by Dela Rosa to be limited to just ‘intelligence consolidation and gathering’ only, for it will be immediately submitted to PDEA when once found out to be a drug related case.
“Let us focus our law enforcement activities on decreasing our street crimes as this is where we are perceived by the community vis a vis our initiatives and efforts,” he stated. | (Tretch Melarpes – PTV)
