PNP told: Stop using Bible as ‘Tokhang’ prop

The Bible and the rosary are not props for police operations of any kind.

For officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the plan of the Eastern Police District (EPD) for its officers to carry Bibles and rosaries while convincing drug users and pushers to surrender is just “theatrics” and “exaggeration.”

“Bringing those religious items during police operations is good only for theatrics. [It is] not essentially necessary,” said Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP’s permanent committee on public affairs.

The EPD had said seeing police officers carrying Bibles and rosaries could stop drug suspects from resisting arrest and just surrender.

But there is no known study, police or whatever, that the Bible or rosary has calming effects on addicts, whose brains, according to President Duterte, have been shrunk by drugs.

Just do your job

Instead of resorting to theatrics, Secillano said police should just do their job, but respect human rights and adhere to legal standards.

Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said the EPD proposal was an “exaggeration.”

“They need not exaggerate it. We’re just asking them to abide by our laws,” said David, vice president of the CBCP.

David said the Philippine National Police should focus its efforts on resolving extrajudicial killings in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

On Monday, the PNP relaunched “Oplan Tokhang,” an operation where police knock at the doors of drug users and suspected drug pushers and convince them to surrender.

Tokhang had been suspended twice because of thousands of deaths in law-enforcement operations against narcotics, forcing President Duterte to demote the PNP from the lead role in the drug war.

This time, Tokhang comes under new guidelines to win public trust, including limiting police visits to daytime, participation by village officials and presence of journalists, though not carrying Bibles and rosaries.

There were no killings on the first two days but an alleged drug pusher was killed in what police reported as a gunfight with officers in Pasig City.

No drugs in Makati?

In Makati City, surprisingly, police could not find drug addicts and pushers. That’s because the city is not on the PNP watch list for Metro Manila.

“According to the list given by the (PNP) Directorate for Intelligence, there are zero [drug suspects] left. Either they had been nabbed, surrendered, or left Makati,” Senior Supt. Gerardo Umayao, Makati police chief, said on Thursday.

Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario Jr., Southern Police District director, confirmed that the watch list did not include Makati, but that would not preclude other law-enforcement operations involving drugs.

He said there was a procedure for uploading suspects to the watch list, which included vetting by a screening committee and validation by the Directorate for Intelligence.

The Makati police are waiting.

“We are ready for a new list to be given to us,” Umayao said.