Don’t join ‘Tokhang’ operations, bishop tells Cebu clergy

CEBU CITY—Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has prohibited all priests in the archdiocese from joining the revived antidrug campaign of the police.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Palma said taking part in police operations was beyond the mandate of the clergy.

“I will not allow priests to join in ‘Tokhang’ operations. That is not the area of our calling. I’m very sorry to say that while Tokhang may have started with the best of intentions, it has [now] gained [an] unfortunate or bad reputation,” said the 66-year-old prelate, referring to the police’s campaign to seek out suspected drug pushers and users in communities in order to convince them to surrender to authorities and reform.

The police operation started as soon as President Duterte assumed office last year.

From July 1, 2016, the President’s first full day in office, to Jan. 30 this year, when the police stopped its antidrug campaign due to allegations of abuse, at least 7,000 drug suspects were killed in the country.

Of this, 2,555 were gunned down in police operations while the rest were slain by unidentified attackers.

The police were also put in the spotlight after the slaying of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was arrested by a team of policemen in Angeles City in Pampanga province over a supposed drug-related offense.

After a monthlong suspension, the antidrug campaign was relaunched by the Philippine National Police early this month.

“Tokhang was an approach to call people to surrender, but it developed into something unpalatable. If a member of the Cebu clergy would want to join the Tokhang, I would tell him no. My answer is no,” he added.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of Central Visayas regional police, said he respected the decision of Palma not to allow local priests to join the police’s drug operations.

“We have no problem with that. Anyway, having them accompany us in the Tokhang was just an invitation,” he said.

The PNP earlier invited priests, members of other religious groups, and barangay officials to join policemen in the operations to dispel suspicions of irregularities in the antidrug campaign.

In Central Visayas, 106,980 drug pushers and users surrendered to the police during the antidrug campaign from July 1 to Jan. 30.

Palma clarified that the Catholic Church fully supported the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs, although it disagreed with the method the government used in waging the campaign.

While the archbishop was firm on prohibiting priests from joining police operations, he said lay ministers could join the police, if they wanted to.

“If … there are some (lay ministers) who feel they are willing to do that, it’s OK,” he said.

The archdiocese of Cebu is the biggest in the country, with about 400 diocesan priests and 300 others from different religious organizations, and about 4 million lay Catholics.

Instead of joining police operations, Palma encouraged priests to focus on helping rehabilitate drug addicts.

On Feb. 21, the archdiocese launched the Cebu Archdiocesan Program for Drug Dependents (CAPDD), replicating two smaller community and center-based programs that reach out and help more drug dependents overcome their addiction.

The archdiocese has partnered with barangay captains, the police and other government agencies for the rehabilitation of drug surrenderers in Cebu City and other towns in Cebu province.

Since July 1, at least 300 drug surrenderers were cleared after taking part in two drug rehabilitation programs organized by Church-based organizations in Cebu.
“The PNP has no capability of rehabilitating drug surrenderers. We’re happy with the program done by the archdiocese,” Taliño said, referring to the CAPDD.