Davao City Police Chief Michael John Dubria maintains that only drug suspects and criminals who resist arrest are in danger of being killed. Dubria said policemen must also defend themselves in their line of duty. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY – A total of 287 drug users have surrendered to the police during its buy-bust operations from June 30 to July 5.
Police Senior Superintendent Michael John Dubria said that these are the people that are “surrendering, volunteering to give themselves up” to the barangay (village) captains.
“The populace, those people involved talagang naniwala sa kampanya na laban sa droga kaya nag-surrender (The populace, those people involved believe in the campaign against illegal drugs that’s why they are surrendering),” he said.
He added that these were all done voluntarily without force or coercion.
Chief inspector Milgrace Driz, outgoing DCPO spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday, July 6 that the areas with the most surrenderees are Bunawan, Toril, Buhangin, and Sta. Ana.
She added that individuals who tried to go against the police during buy-bust operations were neutralized. “All of our directives coming from the city director, [that] we have to preserve lives of our police, especially in times of operations,” Driz said.
With regard to the implementation of the mandate for project double barrel, said Driz, the new DCPO city director encourages the public and the barangays to cooperate with the PNP.
She said that some surrenderees would rather choose to be rehabilitated by themselves because of the lack of facilities in rehabilitation centers in the city.
A rehabilitation center in Tugbok is manned by the local government unit wherein they validate whoever is “qualified” to be rehabilitated there.
We still have to validate those who gustong magparehab, gaano na kalalim yung involvement niya sa drugs (We still have to validate those who want to be rehabilitated, on how severe their involvement is with drugs),” she said.
Revamp
Meanwhile, police authorities in the province are also facing a major challenge of delivering targets of the new administration to deliver in curbing illegal drug trade and criminality within six weeks.
Provincial police directors and unit commanders will face a major revamp if the police command fails to perform its task, said Police Regional Office 11 spokesperson Chief Inspector Andrea dela Cerna on Wednesday, July 6.
Dela Cerna said the major revamp of police officials is a directive from the new PNP Chief, Ronald Dela Rosa to ensure that all police officials are doing their tasks.
Dela Rosa, upon his assumption on July 1, immediately announced a major reorganization in the police force. He also said that they will monitor the performance of provincial and city directors “on a weekly basis.”
“The police are given six weeks, especially the chief of police, to deliver within six weeks on the second week of August. If they fail to perform, they can be relieved from their position,” Dela Cerna said.
She said the provincial directors and the regional directors will also be held accountable for the failure of their subordinates.
“For the station commanders and company commander of our Public Safety Battalion, if they cannot deliver, they will also be relieved and our regional director also gave authority to our provincial director that they can do the revamp among their staff if they think their personnel is not performing well,” she said.
Dubria said they are taking it as a challenge and assured that the DCPO will do its best to eradicate illegal drugs and criminality.
Meanwhile, the DCPO also apprehended 39 personalities and “neutralized” five individuals during the conduct of 34 buy-bust operations from June 30 to July 5. (With reports from Jennica Diaz and Janika Mia Tiempo, MSU Interns/davaotoday.com)
