THE move by Vice President Leni Robredo to scrap the Operation Tokhang initiated by President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration would be a step in the wrong direction and would only embolden drug cartels and drug syndicates to take advantage of the situation.
It seems as if the Vice President does not really understand the real drug situation and might only be knowledgeable of information fed through her by his allies. If she is bent on changing the drug war strategy, then she had better prepare for the fallout sure to come. One would wonder how in just a few weeks' time of sitting down as the new drug czar of the country she can already claim that "operation tokhang" is not effective as an illegal drugs campaign and possibly a failure.
If that is her belief, then perhaps she has a better strategy to propose than the one now being utilized by the present administration, a strategy that should somehow increase the number of those arrested and apprehended for drug peddling and drug use, a strategy that would increase the number of drug lords arrested and drug syndicates and cartels obliterated and destroyed, a strategy that would greatly increase the number of kilos of shabu seized and confiscated. In other words, a strategy that would be better than the previous failed drug campaigns waged by the United States, Mexico and even Bolivia.
And while the Vice President is mulling to change the strategy for the drug campaign, the concerned law enforcement authorities are now in a limbo in how to proceed with operation tokhang given that the drug czar herself has the impression that the campaign has failed.
In fact, if operation tokhang is indeed a failure and needs to be changed, then that failure must be equally shared by all of those who have sacrificed their time, effort, resources and commitment in the implementation of the President's war on drugs. That is what the plan of the Vice President to change the drug strategy translates to. There is no other way to understand the implication of what the Vice President except in the sense that everyone who was involved and was part of operation tokhang were somehow incapable of achieving the successes being envisioned by the new drug czar.
Indeed, the new drug czar should be very careful in evaluating and assessing the operation tokhang campaign since it affects the performance of hundreds if not thousands of law enforcement officers and personnel tasked to carry out the mission. She must also talk sense on how she would change the drug campaign strategy that has already netted tons of kilos of shabu, arrest and surrender of hundreds of thousands of drug users and drug users and the termination and suppression of illegal drug protectors who are often high public officials.
The Vice President should also study deeply the methods and tactics being employed by drug cartels and drug syndicates in conducting their nefarious drug trade so that she can better appreciate the effort being expended by the government in going up against these criminals. If she wants to join actual drug raids, then by all means let her, so that she can also appreciate how a law enforcement agent feels when a drug raid or drug bust is about to go down. Let her see the truth so she can decide whether there is really a need to scrap operation tokhang.