Analysis About OPLAN “TOKHANG”

“We will not stop until the last drug lord…and the last pusher have surrendered or
are put either behind bars or below the ground, if they so wish…” -President Rodrigo
Roa Duterte
For more than decades, illegal drugs are one of the major problems of many
countries all over the world. The on going situation on war against illegal drugs in the
world is very horrible that it had an effect in the society as well as the economic state of
a country. One of the country which is notably affected by illegal drugs is the
Philippines. In my opinion, our country is very susceptible in illegal trade because it is
placed in a very strategic place in the map.
“Oplan Tokhang” is the solution that the Duterte administration came up with as
an answer to the prevalent problem of illegal drug trafficking and drug addiction in the
Philippines. “Tok-hang” is a made-up word, formed by joining common Visayan terms
together: “toktok” or knock, “hangyo” or request or plead. It is the initiative made by the
administration to go to every drug infested places over the country with the Philippine
National Police (PNP) as its prime mover. Each Police personnel has to go house to
house, one by one and knock to each door of every house and ask or plead to every
identified drug suspects to surrender and stop their participation in illegal drug use.
Duterte ordered the Philippine National Police to crackdown all persons who are
involved in illegal drug doings in the Philippines. Since his reign, he implemented the
operational plan of which resulted to the arrest of hundreds of thousands drug
personalities involving some big time politicians as well as police and military generals.
In my point of view, this is by far the most effective as well as impressive action of the
government had done against illegal drugs and the persons, syndicate who were
involve with it.
But today, tokhang has become a familiar word with a familiar, unmistakable
meaning that connotes it, it means “killed.” The reason is because this is now the widely
used and widely accepted meaning in the result of violence of the President Duterte’s
so-called war on drugs. Thousands of people have been killed in the antidrug campaign
furthermore, most of them are those who belongs to broke, ill-fated and poor families.
Ever since its implementation during the earliest days of the Duterte government’s term,
it has come at the cost of the deaths of thousands of citizens who had allegedly fostered
involvement with the illicit drug industry, these people were alleged to be drug traffickers
and drug users, which culminated in the end result being a complete disregard for the
concept of due process through rampant killings. These summary executions or
extrajudicial killings as they are commonly referred to, came to pass through the hand of
either alleged “Third Party Vigilantes” or the Philippine National Police (PNP)
themselves through routine anti drug operations. Furthermore, among the commonly
occurring fatalities in the Duterte administration’s “War on Drugs” were the youth. As a
member of the youth sector, I can relate that it is very likely that the youth are the first to
be involved in the illegal drug trade, because they are vulnerable in the influence of the
society.
The President justified police action that led to the killings as done under threat,
because the suspects fought back. “Nanlaban,” the Filipino term for that, which the
police themselves use in describing the reported encounters, has also become an all-
too-familiar word. The police claim these people were armed and dangerous at the time
of their encounters, this alleged “retaliation” from suspects became a common idea for
the justification of these police killings. These lives are only a small part of the
thousands of deaths under the Duterte administration’s bloody campaign
in an attempt to provide a final solution to the drug problem that is afflicting the
Philippines.
Oplan Tokhang was put to a halt by the Duterte administration after more than a
year- long campaign that left thousands of bodies in its wake, all the while in the end
being unable to put a forth the “final solution” to the drug problem. It was decided that
the responsibility of dealing with the issue of the illicit drug trade was transferred from
the Philippine National Police(PNP) to the Philippine Drug Administration (PDEA).
The country’s drug war has already invited continuous criticism by human rights
organisations against President Duterte. In fact, the ethical issues of Duterte’s task force
and their excessively violent method of executing individuals for the suspected drug trade
halted the anti-drug campaign twice in two years. Despite that, the President still maintains
overwhelming support from his voters, mostly residing in metropolitan cities. A large
proportion of these people are not directly affected by his drug policies and are satisfied by
the increased sense of security residing within the suburbs of Manila and Cebu, places
where crime and drug trade used to run rampant without Duterte’s aggressive drug policies.
Duterte’s drug war has also prompted external scrutiny by human rights
organisations due to extrajudicial killings of individuals within poverty-stricken
neighbourhoods. Most individuals who are executed in the streets during the crackdown are
breadwinners of their family, resulting in the difficulty of the remaining family members,
mainly poor women and children to financially support themselves. Many who have
experienced the “Oplan Tokhang” first-hand have agreed that rehabilitation, welfare and
income-generation programs remain the only feasible solution to eradicate drug use in the
Philippines. The government can promote economic equity with these programs by
alleviating Filipinos from extreme poverty. The poor would be able to afford food instead of
relying on drugs for mental and physical sustenance, driving drug prices down. This would
then prompt drug suppliers to stop their drug-related activities due to diminishing revenue,
an outcome far more desirable for the government and people of the Philippines.
Overall, I can tell that the oplan tokhang has been effective in reducing or decreasing
the persons being a victim of illegal drug trade, but it did not completely eradicate the drug
problem of our country as a whole. The process of the oplan was not follow due to some
uncontrolled reason but had met its expectations which is to ask people to surrender and
give up on illiegal drug use. Moreover, the oplan have not conform to its original tactics or
strategy in knocking the door of people and pleading them to stop illegal drug use/abuse but
it diverted and skip on the process, the enforcer had immediately killed the people even if
due process was not followed.