After receiving complaints about its seemingly threatening tone, the letter being sent to Quezon City homeowners requiring their attendance at meetings where the police will be discussing its “Oplan Tokhang” drive will be revised.
Earlier, a notice from the barangay chair of Teachers Village East inviting residents to a meeting with the police on
Dec. 17 was circulated online, drawing negative reactions.
“All residents and homeowners … must attend. If you cannot come, please send an adult family representative,” the letter said, stressing that household helpers would not be considered qualified representatives.
“If you do not attend or send a qualified family representative, then the police team of Operation Tokhang together with barangay representatives will come knocking at your door,” it warned.
According to the letter, to be taken up during the meeting are the objectives, processes and methods of the government’s antidrug campaign.
Sought for comment, Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, assured the public that the police would not be going after absentees.
Not a threat
“It was never meant to be a threat in the first place,” he told the Inquirer on Sunday. “The suggested template for the letters came from some homeowners’ associations themselves who [said] that these meetings usually have low turnouts.”
Eleazar said this format proved to be effective in some gated subdivisions as the meetings were attended by almost 90 percent of homeowners. He observed that the letter never drew any criticisms until now.
Taking note of the negative reactions, Eleazar said he had already instructed the chief of the QPCD police community relations to coordinate with the different homeowners’ associations to revise the wording of the letter.
According to the QCPD chief, the meetings preceded the modified operation plan recently rolled out by the Philippine National Police under “Project Double Barrel Alpha.”
With a renewed focus on drug clearing operations, the police will now be implementing “Oplan Taphang,” derived from tapok, meaning to gather and hangyo, to plead.
“Those consultative meetings are actually already the modified Tokhang,” Eleazar said. “We know that we will not get anything from simply knocking on doors so we talk to them instead. We don’t expect anyone to surrender,” he told the Inquirer.
Meanwhile, Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, urged the police to withdraw the statement and reword it because of its “coercive tone” that produces a “terror effect.”
As a lawyer, he said he has received questions from residents such as “Should we attend?” and “Is this legal?”
“Because of the tone, people who are not aware of their basic rights [may have] fear and anxiety,” he said. “They should reword this in a way that it positively encourages people to voluntarily attend.”
“Under the guise of the drug war, this can be abused,” Olalia said. “We will cooperate with the police, but forcing people is harassment.”
But Eleazar maintained that they would respect the rights of people and would not go after the absentees.
“If we do knock, it is up to the owner of the house if they will speak to us,” he said, adding: “If they don’t, we cannot do anything.”
He stressed that if they receive any information on alleged illegal drug involvement, they will still not come knocking. “We will develop information, build a case, apply for search warrants and implement it,” Eleazar said.