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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Monday, October 16, 2017
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MANILA – Senators weighed in on where the P900-million budget for the government’s intensified antidrug drive should go now that the Philippine National Police (PNP) was barred from operating against illegal drugs.
The PNP suspended Project Double Barrel after President Rodrigo Duterte signed a memorandum giving the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) the sole authority in the drug crackdown.
Project Double Barrel includes Oplan Tokhang, or toktok and hangyo, the knock-and-appeal stage of the campaign.
“The budget allotted for the PNP’s Oplan Tokhang must be stripped and realigned to the new lead agency in the fight against illegal drugs,” said Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, finance committee vice chairman.
The PDEA may use the additional funding in training personnel and rehabilitating drug users, and not as a quota or bounty bonus, Aquino said.
“A lot of pressure is on the PDEA to do this right and without the backlash of the killings and collateral damage,” he said.
Sen. Joel Villanueva has another thing in mind: allot the Tokhang funds to housing programs.
“I think it’s a lot better,” Villanueva said, adding that improved government housing services may help alleviate poverty.
“Iyan ang isa sa mga matinding mag-aahon sa kahirapan sa ating mga kababayan, na magkaroon sila ng sariling tirahan, sariling bahay,” he said.
Villanueva suggested taking additional funding for PDEA operations from underutilized funds of other agencies.
“Once we come back for our budget deliberations, we’ll find out if PDEA needs it,” he said.
“If they need it, I want to get the funding somewhere else, and I think we have a lot of agencies out there na underutilized ang budget nila for the past several years so I think doon na lang namin kukunin.
“Iyong P900 million, dalhin na lang natin sa housing.”/PN
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