Palace won’t meddle in plea to stop ‘Tokhang’

Malacañang on Thursday said it would not meddle in the petition to stop the Duterte administration’s “Oplan Tokhang” against drug suspects.

“Let’s follow the legal process. The President allows all these things. He is very allowing, right? Even the protests, he will allow that basta (when) it comes, again, from a collegial position. We are all equal,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

On Thursday, a petition was filed before the Supreme Court to stop the Quezon City police from conducting anti-illegal drug operations known as “Oplan Tokhang” in Payatas, Quezon City.

“Oplan Tokhang” involves policemen knocking on houses of drug suspects and asking them to surrender.

This was the first petition against the administration’s “Oplan Tokhang” since it was launched in July 2016.

The petition urged the high court to protect the families of “tokhang” victims from continued harassment and intimidation by police.

Named respondents in the petition were the Philippine National Police (PNP) itself, represented by Director General Ronald dela Rosa, Senior Superintendent Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, Superintendent Lito Patay, Senior Inspector Emil S. Garcia, PO3 Allan Formilleza, PO1 James Aggarao, P01 Melchor Navisaga and any of their agents.

Abella reiterated that the spate of drug related-killings in the country was not government-sanctioned.

“We’re not into that (extrajudicial killings). I mean really, we’re not into that,” he said./ac