“KAKATOK kami sa pintuan nila.  (We will knock on their doors.)”.

This was the soft approach enumerated by P/Superintendent Christopher Abrahano, Dagupan chief of police, when asked by THE PUNCH how he intends to meet the three to six months self-imposed deadline of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to end the country’s drug problem.

He said knocking on the doors of identified drug pushers was the marching order given to them by incoming PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa.

This means, Abrahano said, they will try to persuade the identified drug pushers to cease their illegal activities by going to their own homes.

“After that bahala na sila (it is up to them) if they will still continue with their illegal activities,” Abrahano said.

He added the police have a list of drug pushers and users based on the list submitted to the City Anti-drug Abuse Council (CADAC) by the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (BADACs).

Mayor Belen Fernandez is chair of CADAC in Dagupan City.

Abrahano said that per their records, there are 180 identified drug pushers and 297 identified drug users in Dagupan, adding that at present, the police are working with the court for the issuance of warrants by the court to 10 drug pushers.

He said since he assumed as chief of police of Dagupan in 2013, a total of 718 persons involved in illegal drugs have already been arrested.

There were 115 arrested in 2013, 140 in 2014, 223 in 2015 and 140 from January 2016 to date.

Pantal and Bonuan Binloc were identified by Abrahano as top drug hot spots in Dagupan. The other hot spots are Bonuan Gueset and Bonuan Binloc.

He stopped short of naming certain families suspected to be involved in illegal trade.

The chief of police said they will further intensify their mopping up operations against drug pushers in the barangays, an activity which he started since his first day in office in the city.

He is confident that with the help of the PNP higher-ups, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the local government as well as the public, the city of Dagupan will soon be drug free.

At the same time, Abrahano admitted that there was an instance they arrested a photographer in a buy-bust operation at Poblacion Oeste in possession of green-colored shabu.

He said the emergence of colored shabu was just a ploy of drug peddlers to entice buyers and not for anything else.

The police in Dagupan also arrested two weeks ago in Sitio Aling in Barangay Pantal a 14-year old boy in a drug-buy bust operation which showed that the syndicate has not stopped using minors in their illegal trade. (Leonardo Micua)

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