A TOTAL of 29,011 drug personalities, including pushers and users, in Negros Island Region (NIR) have surrendered to the police through “Oplan Tokhang” from July 1, 2016 to January 26, 2017.
Records obtained by SunStar Bacolod on Monday from Police Regional Office (PRO)-18 showed that 13,390 drug surrenderees were recorded by the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (Norppo) while 11,783 were listed by Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo). The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) has 3,838 surrenderers.
Of the 13,390 drug surrenderers under Norppo, 12,459 were users and 931 were pushers. In Nocppo, 10,978 were users and 805 were pushers while BCPO recorded 3,563 users and 275 pushers.
Of the 29,011 drug surrenderers, 2,725 were under the drugs watchlist and 26,286 were newly-identified.
The PRO-NIR has arrested 1,128 drug personalities, including 530 users and 598 pushers.
Under the seven-month massive campaign against illegal drugs, the PRO-NIR has recorded 23 drug personalities killed, mostly in police operations. Of the 23 killed, four were users and 19 were pushers, records showed.
Since the implementation of Oplan Tokhang and Oplan Double Barrel on July 1, police visited 22,168 houses in the region, including houses of 7,734 drug personalities under the watchlist, and 14,434 other households.
Chief Inspector Dianne Grace Catedral, public information officer of PRO-NIR, told SunStar Bacolod that they consider the implementation of Oplan Tokhang in the region successful with the current figure of drug surrenderees.
Last week, the Philippine National Police (PNP) ordered all police units to cease and desist from conducting such operations effective January 29 after several policemen were involved in the alleged “tokhang for ransom” which victimized the slain South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.
Last January 30, PNP Chief Ronald de la Rosa then directed all police units to focus on “internal cleansing.”
Walk-in surrenderers, however, should still be processed at the police stations, according to the PNP procedure and guidelines. All drug-related operations will be temporarily conducted solely by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Nabbed
A man was arrested after he yielded drug paraphernalia in a police checkpoint on Galo-Lacson Streets, Barangay 22 in Bacolod City Monday.
Police identified the suspect as Johnard del Rosario, 40, of Barangay Montevista.
Del Rosario was caught in possession of an improvised tooter, two lighters, and a pouch, police records showed.