Palace hopes for less bloody police “tokhang” campaign

January 29, 2018

Malacanang expressed hope on Monday the new "Oplan Tokhang," an anti-illegal drug campaign of the Philippine National Police, will be less bloody.

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Palace hopes the police have learned their lessons from their past experience.

"(T)he PNP has said they want this tokhang operation to be less bloody. We are hoping it will be and we welcome the statement by the PNP as reaffirming their commitment to the rule of law," he said.

Under the new tokhang campaign, suspected drug users could not be arrested and policemen who are involved in the anti-drug campaign are only allowed to visit houses of the alleged drug suspects who are in their watch list.

Previous tokhang campaign resulted to the death of thousands of drug suspects.

Asked of President Rodrigo Duterte's instructions in the relaunched anti-drug campaign, Roque said, "no instructions. These guidelines of the PNP are voluntarily made. And of course, they are now conducting tokhang also with the involvement of PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) or that has retained the lead in the implementation of the Dangerous Drugs Law." Celerina Monte/DMS