[ad_1]
The head of the Philippine Drug Control Agency (PDEA), Wilkins Villanueva, warned on Friday about “tokhang” against the barangay (village) captains who had not established the Barangay (Badac) Drug Abuse Council in their respective electoral districts.
Villanueva said that every barangay should have Badac to clear their area of illegal drugs.
“You don’t have in your barangay, so if kapitan tokhangin na natin (then let’s take tokhang to the head of the village),” Villanueva said at a press conference.
He clarified that tokhang is only a home visit and not an anti-drug operation.
A total of 20,165 out of 42,045 villages had been cleared of drugs across the country, according to the Real Numbers PH data submitted.
But 14,171 villages had yet to be cleared, the anti-drug agency revealed.
These were located in the metropolitan parts of Luzon and Visayas, Villanueva said.
With many villages still affected by drugs, Villanueva assured that they will perform tokhang against the officials of the local government unit once the coronavirus pandemic ends.
Additionally, Philippine National Police Chief General Camilo Cascolan said that they would design new guidelines in their operations against illegal drugs to accommodate the pandemic, adding that Tokhang is part of the police communication relations activity.
Meanwhile, a total of 256,788 drug suspects were arrested, while 5,856 were killed during the four-year war on illegal drugs, the Philippine Drug Control Agency (PDEA) reported on Friday.
In recent data from Real Numbers PH, 176,777 operations against illegal drugs were carried out from July 1, 2016 to August 31, 2020.
In these operations, 431 government employees, 352 elected officials and 102 uniformed officers were arrested.
The PDEA reported that 10,308 drug personalities identified and designated as high value targets were arrested: 282 foreigners, 2,957 on the target list and 66 members of armed groups, among others.
Law enforcement officers seized a total of 53,460 million pesos in illegal drugs and laboratory equipment. In that amount, P43,690 million were shabu weighing 7,011.96 kilograms, the report added.
The PDEA also reported that 3,332 children ages 4 to 17 were rescued in anti-drug operations.
[ad_2]
