{"id":237455,"date":"2019-11-14T22:42:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T03:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=237455"},"modified":"2019-11-14T22:42:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T03:42:00","slug":"oplan-tokhang-stays-but-needs-retooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/14\/oplan-tokhang-stays-but-needs-retooling\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Oplan Tokhang’ stays but needs retooling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Vice President Leni Robredo and PDEA Director General Aaron N. Aquino, Co-Chairpersons of Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), exchange pleasantries shortly before the ICAD meeting on November 8, 2019 at the Office of the Vce President (OVP), New Manila, Quezon City. (Photo<\/a>: PDEA Top Stories\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Vice President and anti-drug czar Leni Robredo agreed that Oplan Tokhang will remain in place but stressed the campaign must undergo a “retooling”, the country’s top cop said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to convince her,\u00a0meron lang<\/em>\u00a0(there is just) probably repackaging or retooling on how it\u2019s going to be presented\u00a0pero<\/em>\u00a0(but) she is convinced that indeed the Philippine Anti-Drug Strategy (PADS) is already a strategy that can be adapted outright,\u201d Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge, Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa told reporters on the sidelines of a gun show in Mandaluyong City.<\/p>\n

Gamboa met with Robredo and other members of the law enforcement cluster of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) to discuss the country’s existing anti-drug strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had become a byword\u00a0kasi parang madali syang maalala, parang kantong usapan<\/em>\u00a0(it is easy to remember because it is like street language). She\u2019s also convinced that (Oplan) Tokhang does not mean anything bad. Tokhang came from a Visayan word,\u00a0kung titingnan mo yun<\/em>\u00a0(if you will look into it), there’s no killing in tokhang. That’s it, letting the people feel the existence of strategy,\u201d Gamboa added.<\/p>\n

Gamboa said the meeting with Robredo went well.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is convinced after studying the Tokhang, Double Barrel, Double Barrel Alpha Reloaded and now the community-based. \u2018All are in order,\u2019 were her exact words,\u201d Gamboa said.<\/p>\n

Robredo, co-chair of the ICAD, noted that measuring success in the drug war and coming up with unified figures, Gamboa revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a community-based (approach). (All of these are) geared towards the declaration of drug-free barangays. We all have one track in mind there and we agreed on these initial steps to move forward,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

According to Gamboa, Robredo had pointed out three things that need to be focused on the government\u2019s anti-illegal drugs campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Yung<\/em>\u00a0going forward, second is measuring success and coming up with unified figures. All of these things are addressed already by ICAD even before. It\u2019s just a matter of letting her understand that these things have already existed,\u201d Gamboa said.<\/p>\n

On Robredo’s seeking of the help of the United States (US), Gamboa said the PNP has been coordinating with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).<\/p>\n

Gamboa proposed strict enforcement along borders to stop the shipment of illegal drugs into the country.<\/p>\n

He also believes that the country’s seeking intelligence information on illegal drugs from foreign counterparts is “essential.”<\/p>\n

“We are convinced that a lot of our drugs are coming from the outside,” Gamboa added.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Gamboa vowed to fully support Robredo particularly in briefing her about the law enforcement aspect of the anti-drug drive.<\/p>\n

He also said the PNP is ready for any possible changes in the drug war after Robredo sought its reassessment.<\/p>\n

He, however, said there is no need for the country’s second-highest ranking official to join anti-illegal drug operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Vice President and anti-drug czar Leni Robredo agreed that Oplan Tokhang will remain in place but stressed the campaign …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":237046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-christopher-lloyd-caliwan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237456,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237455\/revisions\/237456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}