Top cop vows vigorous anti-drug drive

By: Jennifer P. Rendon 

The new leadership of Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) would continue, if not further intensify, the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs.

This, Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police chief, said when asked about his administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“More operations will be conducted, that’s for sure. The vigorous campaign will continue and the aggressiveness of the police will be felt by drug personalities,” he said.

Pamuspusan said the warning of President Rodrigo Duterte should be enough for illegal drugs personalities “that the full force of the law will go against them if they would insist on engaging in illegal drugs activities”

“They should understand that already. There’s no point of repeating the warning.

If they still insist on conducting or doing this illegal activity, the police in Region 6 is serious in implementing the instruction to go after them,” he said.

On Monday, July 29, Pamuspusan said that different police units in Western Visayas have conducted 159 police operations from July 1 to 28, 2019. These led to the arrest of 225 persons.

“We would like to highlight and commend the recent accomplishments of Bacolod City Police Office and Negros Occidental that yielded millions worth of suspected shabu,” he said.

As of last week, PRO-6 has 374 watch listed drug personalities based on Directorate for Intelligence’s records.

These are a combination of high-value targets (HVT) and street level pushers.

Under the provisions of Oplan Tokhang, if they would surrender, they would be subjected to police operations.

Further, Pamuspusan said there validation continues because of monitoring operations against newly-identified drug targets.

On Wednesday, the Regional Oversight Committee on Illegal Drugs and Illegal Gambling (ROCIDG) will meet to assess further the new names and validated groups involved in the illegal drug trade.

But Pamuspusan clarified that those local chief executives and government officials are not included in the DI list since they might be included in the PRRD list.