MANILA — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde on Monday said authorities will proceed and continue relentlessly with the war on drugs, reiterating that it welcomes constructive criticism and suggestions on fine-tuning the anti-criminality effort.
“We are recalibrating our operational thrusts for the various law enforcement concerns and initiatives to sync well with the national policy,” Albayalde said in a press briefing in Camp Crame.
He also asserted that the PNP is “is united behind the President (Rodrigo Duterte) in recognizing that the war on drugs is still far from over (and) thus we can expect that our intensified campaign on the war on drugs and criminality will be absolutely relentless and chilling,”
Albayalde conceded that authorities have “no monopoly on intelligence” as he underscored that the government continues to welcome efforts to improve the campaign against drugs.
The PNP chief added that he has directed the PNP oversight committee on illegal drugs “to recalibrate” Oplan Tokhang to be more relentless in accounting for the remaining 1,526 individuals on the drug personalities’ watchlist who are yet to surrender and submit themselves to rehabilitation.
Tokhang refers to the PNP program to conduct community level visits by local police to known drug addicts to urge them to undergo rehabilitation.
“It will also be relentless in monitoring the whereabouts of 1,000,213 drug users and street pushers who have already surrendered to make sure they have actually mended their ways,” Albayalde said.
“This is to deliver a strong message about the certainty of punishment to high value targets, their protectors and patrons and all those who provide criminal support systems that sustain the illegal drug trade,” he added. (Benjamin Pulta/PNA)
