The Philippine National Police (PNP) has urged Vice President Leni Robredo to focus more on advocacy and rehabilitation of illegal drug users.
Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP officer-in-charge, said those two facets of aggressive anti-illegal drugs campaign are where the anti-narcotics law enforcement agencies are lacking focus.
Advocacy focuses on measures to discourage people from using drugs while rehabilitation is on the assistance given to those who are hooked on drugs for them to return to normal life and become better members of the society, according to Gamboa.
“On our part, the PNP has very restrictive mandate. We are purely on law enforcement aspect like buy-bust operations or service of arrest and search warrants,” said Gamboa.
“While we have participation on advocacy and rehabilitation and wellness, ours is really on law enforcement,” he added.
Gamboa made the statement after Robredo stated that she wanted to prevent unnecessary killings during police operations, citing the data that more than 5,000 people have already been killed in various anti-drugs operations nationwide.
Police would always claim that all the slain suspects were killed because they tried to fight it out with the police. But there were some cases that anti-narcotics agents were found to have planted evidence like guns and shabu against alleged drug suspects to make it appear that there were encounters.
During the Senate probe in 2017 for instance, the Caloocan City police had been insistent that 17-year old Kian delos Santos was a drug courier and that he tried to engage them in a gun battle.
It turned out that Delos Santos was dragged by police operatives in a dimly-lighted portion of a depressed area in Caloocan City where he was executed later.
Robredo was appointed as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) when President Duterte got mad when the Vice President said that the drug war should need a second look because it appears to be not working.
Currently, Robredo has been meeting with various local and international anti-illegal drugs advocacy groups to determine the best practices that were implemented before that could be used in the Philippines.
Gamboa also explained that there is no need for Robredo to join police operations as suggested by some critics and other government officials allied with the President.
“We generals do not join illegal drugs operations probably because during our younger days we were exposed to this but when being a co-chairperson of ICAD, it encompasses a lot of things,” said Gamboa.
“I hope she will not only concentrate on law enforcement because as presented mas marami actually doon dapat sa advocacy and rehabilitation,” he added. (Aaron Recuenco)
