Police Chief Oscar Albayalde said Monday the authorities will continue their relentless war on drugs, and that they welcome constructive criticism and suggestions on how to fine-tune their campaign against criminality.
“We are recalibrating our operational thrusts for the various law enforcement concerns and initiatives to sync well with the national policy,” Albayalde told reporters in Camp Crame.
He said the Philippine National Police “is united behind the President [Rodrigo Duterte] in recognizing that the war on drugs is far from over, [and] thus we can expect that our intensified campaign on the war on drugs and criminality will be absolutely relentless and chilling.”
Albayalde said the authorities had “no monopoly on intelligence” but added the government continued to welcome the efforts to improve the campaign against illegal drugs.
He said he had ordered the PNP oversight committee on illegal drugs “to recalibrate” Oplan Tokhang to be more relentless in accounting for the remaining 1,526 individuals on the drug watchlist who were yet to surrender and submit themselves for rehabilitation.
Tokhang refers to the police program to conduct community-level visits by the police to known drug addicts to urge them to undergo rehabilitation.
“We will also be relentless in monitoring the whereabouts of 1,000,213 drug users and street pushers who have already surrendered to make sure they have actually mended their ways,” Albayalde said.
“This is to deliver a strong message about the certainty of punishment to high-value targets, their protectors and patrons, and all those who provide criminal support systems that sustain the illegal drug trade.”