Operation against ‘big fish’ under war on drugs starts – Business Mirror

The killing of the late Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. during an operation by a combined police team in Ozamiz City this week has set in motion the Philippine National Polices campaign against so-called big fish in its vicious anti-narcotics war.

The operation that resulted in the death of Parojinog, whom President Duterte had earlier identified as among the countrys narco-politicians, had dispelled criticisms that the government is only after small fish in its bloody war on drugs.

The PNP revived its twin campaigns against illegal drugs in March this year, after they were briefly put on the back burner as a result of the involvement of some police anti-narcotics operatives in controversial operations, the worse of which was the killing of a Korean.

The Double Barrel Reloaded and Oplan Tokhang Revisited were put back into operations to sustain and continue the campaign against so-called high-value targets, and street users and peddlers of illegal drugs.

While the Double Barrel was supposed to have neutralized personalitiesincluding politicians, drug lords and financierswho are behind the illegal-drugs operation in the country, it actually only got rid of three known personalities before the death of Parojinog. Two local politicians and a drug couple.

Since last year, the Double Barrel Reloaded has only accounted for Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, Saudi Ampatuan Mayor Samsodin Dimaukom and couple Meriam and Melvin Odicta.

Sadly, all four, whom the police had considered as high-value targets under its drugs list, were killed, two of them in police operations.

Espinosa was killed inside his cell at the Baybay subprovincial jail in Leyte last November, while Dimaukom was killed in a shootout with policemen last October.

The Odicta couple, who were from Iloilo and whom PNP chief Director General Ronald M. de la Rosa considered as top drug lords in Western Visayas, were shot dead at the Caticlan port by unidentified men in April last year.

More to come

Following the death of Parojinog, de la Rosa said more drug personalities will follow, advising the public to wait for a little while.

A lot more, the PNP chief told reporters in response to a question from a journalist when pressed about their next target following the operations against Parojinog. You just have to wait for a little bit.

De la Rosa said the operations against the late Ozamiz City mayor should serve as a warning to all drugs lords, and even criminals, to mend their ways or stop their illegal activities.

The PNP considers no sacred cows in its enforcement of laws. As far as law enforcement is concerned, we have no fear or [give] favor. If there is for you to be operated on, we will operate against you, he said.

The PNP chief added the death of Parojinog was not intentional. However, the late mayor died because he had chosen to fight it out with the policemen who were serving search warrants.

De la Rosa said that in every police operations, he wanted his policemen to come out alive, and not the subject of their operation.

I want my men alive. I always say it, and clearly, it should be the good man standing and the bad man laying [on] the pavement, he said.

A hundred more

De la Rosa said the operations for the Double Barrel Reloaded will take them around the country, adding that they are already in the process of building up cases against those identified by Duterte on his list of narco-politicians.

We are building up cases against them; the validation is continuing. If we have build up cases against them, then we will operate, he said.

The PNP chief acknowledged that the list of the President on politicians and other high-value targets in the illegal drugs is long, but he would make sure that all of them would be having their day of reckoning, unless they will reform, or have already reformed. And on his list for politicians involved in drugs, Duterte has identified at least a hundred of them.

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Operation against 'big fish' under war on drugs starts - Business Mirror