POLICEWOMEN of the Southern Police District brought the ongoing national war against narcotics to the very doorstep of the rich and famous as they knocked on homes in posh enclaves in Muntinlupa City beginning Thursday.
Among the homes subjected by authorities to their “Oplan Tokhang” was the residences of former President Fidel V. Ramos and Senator Panfilo Lacson.
The police also visited the home of Joseph Brodett, a suspected member of the so-called Alabang Boys who spent two years fighting off drug charges and was eventually acquitted.
SPD spokesperson Jenny Tecson said the Muntinlupa City Police, led by Senior Supt. Nicolas Salvador, conducted the house-to-house visit shortly before noon.
“More or less 100 houses were knocked and visited including the house of former President Ramos and the Alabang Boys. The policemen were warmly welcomed by the residents and even showed their appreciation to the program being conducted by the local police,” she said.
Tecson also said “the residents were made to be aware on the different modus operandi of the criminal elements and the actions to be undertaken by them in order not to be victimized.”
Leaflets on bomb threats were also distributed with the corresponding contact numbers to be contacted in case of emergency, she added.
Early this month, the Makati City police conducted “Oplan Tokhang” at the equally exclusive subdivisions of Barangays Magallanes and Forbes Park. The door-to-door information drive covered around 26 households on the first day.
Mayor Abigail Binay said the anti-drug drive in the two villages was a good sign and she expects similar door-to-door campaigns to be conducted in the other villages as well.
“I commend the barangay leaders and residents of the six villages in the city for weighing in on the ongoing war against drugs. I hope this is the beginning of your sustained cooperation and support to the campaign,” she said.
Binay earlier appealed to village officials and residents to allow the police to conduct Oplan Tokhang inside their subdivisions, following a report that only one exclusive village, Magallanes, had permitted the said operation.
“The war against drugs can only be won if we extend our full cooperation with the police, especially in locating known pushers and users in our own backyard,” she said.
Leaflets and flyers containing information on illegal drugs and their ill effects, hotlines and mobile numbers of the nearest police community precincts were handed by the joint teams to residents of the said villages who responded to their knocks at the gates.
In Barangay Forbes Park, Ambassador Ralte Laldhuthlana of the Embassy of India even invited barangay chairman Evelyn Manotoc, Southern Police District Director Col. Tomas Apolinario, and Makati police chief Col. Rommil Mitra to come in.
Prior to the joint information drive, officers of the Makati Police, barangay officials and representatives of the homeowners’ associations of the six villages and other stakeholders held a consultation and dialog in Magallanes.
The government’s Oplan “Tokhang” or (toktok-hangyo, or knock and plead) mandates police station commanders to ask the barangay captains to submit a list of residents known to be into illegal drugs, including pushers, dealers, users and couriers.