LEGAZPI CITY—Since the Police Regional Office 5 launched “Operation Tokhang,” which involves going from door-to-door in neighborhoods of suspected drug users and pushers, 1,595 drug pushers and dependents have surrendered in various police stations in the Bicol region.
Through Operation Tokhang, culled from the Visayan term that means to knock on doors and make an appeal, the police were able to visit 898 houses around Bicol.
The campaign is an offshoot of “Project Double Barrel” wherein law enforcers go around suspected havens of illegal drug activities to get both high-value targets—the “big personalities”—and the “street-level” ones.
Chief Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, 15th director of Police Regional Office 5, said the number of individuals who surrender is an indication of Bicol police’s “eagerness” to stop the drug menace within the shortest possible time.
President Rodrigo Duterte and Philippine National Police Chief Director-General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa gave the police a six-month deadline to eliminate the drug scourge.
The 1,595 from the six Bicol provinces of Sorsogon, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Masbate, Catanduanes and Albay included 1,375 drug dependents or users, 82 classified pushers and 138 known as both users and pushers.
The regional office was also able to arrest 41 suspected drug peddlers and kill nine suspects who engaged in a shootout with PNP operatives during their buy-bust operations.
During Operation Tokhang, Bicol police was also able to confiscate 78 plastic sachets with 10,967.92 grams of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), 12 assorted firearms and three hand grenades.
