Guv to cops: Instill fear in drug pushers
DRUGLORDS WORSE THAN MURDERERS
GOV. Amado T. Espino Jr. pushed the envelope further in his declared war against illegal drugs in Pangasinan. His unequivocal order to the law enforcers in the province is “to instill fear in the minds of all those involved in illegal drugs by treating them worse than murderers.”
He said murderers have their own reasons for killing, may be for revenge but in the case of drug pushers, they have no other reason at all except to earn but in the process “destroy the family, destroy the community, destroy the society”
In a meeting with the top officers of the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office, Mr. Espino, a retired Senior Superintendent of the Philippine National Police and a director of PNP Region 1 and Pangasinan, said he does not rely on numbers or the statistics of apprehensions presented by the police.
“They (police) have been relying on numbers or the statistics of people being apprehended but in this drug war, the numbers are not important but rather than to remove illegal drugs in the community, being the number one problem of the country today,” he intoned in a talk later to newsmen.
“I told them (police) that our measure of achievements in the province is the number of convictions that had been made to find out where those apprehended were really going,” he also said
Citing his personal experience when he was a police officer, Espino said the police in the province must report that a case is already solved once the man they had apprehended is finally convicted.
He told OIC Police Provincial Director Rollie Saltat that in their next meeting, the chiefs of police should have a report on how many of those they arrested had been convicted because this is what matters in his anti-drug campaign.
While Espino urged the police to treat the drug pushers more than murderers, he however said that he considers the users as victims of drug pushers who must be rehabilitated to give them a chance to rejoin the society as peaceful citizens.
Nevertheless, he called on the police to keep a list of drug users in barangays and sitios and to find out where they are sourcing their illegal drugs.
Noting that what policemen are reporting as accomplishments are measly amounts of illegal drugs seized and they consider those they have arrested as big-time pushers when they were merely in their sando and slippers, Mr. Espino said he directed the police to devise other ways to be able to arrest the bigger targets with bigger volume of drugs in their possessions.
“The bigger targets caught with big volume of illegal drugs in their possessions are what can be considered as real accomplishments,” the governor said.
As to the lament of some police chiefs that they don’t have enough cash to conduct buy-bust operations against drug pushers, Mr. Espino directed them to go to their municipal or city mayors since the town and city councils already allotted 5.5 percent of their annual budgets to be used in anti-illegal drugs operations.
“If your mayors can not provide you money, go to your provincial director or to me personally and I will provide you what you need in your operations,” he said.
Pangasinan is the only province in the country that requires its LGUs to set aside part of their budgets for anti-illegal drugs operations. The province has allocated more than P12 million in this campaign.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is and I still don’t know if you don’t call that as political will,” he added.
At the same time, Espino called on all police chiefs to adopt the strategy adopted by P/Chief Inspector Ryan Manongdo chief of police of Pozorrubio, to make an effort to inform their town mates that they (police) are serious in weeding out illegal drugs.
He also lauded Superintendent Christopher Abrahano, chief of police of Dagupan, who said the police can do everything that it can to abate illegal drugs, that is why Dagupan is credited for the highest accomplishments in the fight against illegal drugs. (Leonardo Micua)
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