Can the government handle the implied bargain in the expected surrender of around a thousand of drug personalities in the province?
With the premise that lack of income forced most of the drug pushers to engage in the illegal trade, their surrender to authorities came along with the expectation of livelihood opportunity.
For the drug users who made the illegal drugs trade a lucrative business, they expect to be accommodated for rehabilitation.
Police chiefs discussed these concerns with the local chief executives in their areas of responsibility.
As of yesterday, 640 drug personalities had already surrendered to police stations and local officials in eight towns and Tagbilaran City.
The most number came from Guindulman where 281 drug personalities in the town voluntarily surrendered as of 10 a.m. on Monday in response to Oplan Tok-hang.
In Jagna, the municipal police recorded 102 surrenderees on Sunday and Monday.
In Loay, four drug personalities surrendered as of 3 p.m. on Monday to the office of the mayor. Mayor Rochelle Bridgette Imboy then coordinated with the municipal police for their turn over and the police officers fetched them from the mayor’s office to the police station to be placed on record.
In Maribojoc, 20 drug personalities had already surrendered- -six of them surrendered last Friday, while 14 did Monday morning.
In Tagbilaran City, 110 drug personalities surrendered as of yesterday. Of the 64 who went ahead on Monday, two had pending alias warrants of arrest for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The two yielded themselves to Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO) and had been detained at the lock-up jail at Camp Dagohoy after.
The 108 others surrendered to Tagbilaran City Police Station.
Mananquil identified the two as Garizalde Cabalit, 42, and Christopher Pilias, 38, both residents of barangay Taloto.
Mananquil added that the two have been charged of violation of section 11, under Article II, of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The court recommended bail bond of P200,000 for Pilias, and none for Cabalit, based on the gravity of the offenses they had been charged of.
Mananquil tagged them as Level 1 drug personalities as the intelligence report showed they could dispose 300 grams of shabu per week.
City chief of police, Supt. George Vale, announced that the city police station will only give the remaining drug personalities until July 15 to yield themselves.
After the July 15 deadline, Vale said the police will launch a full operation against the remaining drug personalities based on whatever the order from Philippine National Police (PNP) director will be, most likely the shoot-to-kill order as Duterte had repeatedly warned since the campaign period.
Those who surrendered before Vale and Provincial Intelligence Branch chief, Senior Insp. Jojit Mananquil, came from barangays Taloto, Manga, Bool, and Ubujan.
Ubujan Barangay Captain Mary Jane Ruiz accompanied surrenderees from her village.
After they voluntarily surrendered, they attended an orientation by the city police on the consequences had they refused to yield.
They then submitted themselves for mugshots, finger printing and signed a pledge to never return to the illegal drugs activities.
The other police stations in the towns also conducted the same orientation for the drug personalities who had surrendered.
The mass surrender of drug personalities whom the police and barangay officials had reached out through Oplan Tok-hang all over the province started a few hours after Duterte took oath as the new president on June 30.
The tourist town of Panglao led with 94 residents, including four women, yielding in batches from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on June 30 to confess having been involved in illegal drugs either as pushers or users. Of the 94 who yielded, 19 confessed as pushers, 75 as users.
In the record, 69 of them came from barangay Poblacion, 10 from Tawala, seven from Bolod, four from Looc, and two each from Bil-isan and Danao.
Panglao chief of police, Senior Insp. Joemar Pomarejos, acknowledged them and had their pictures and finger prints taken for the record.
Pomarejos also made them pledge to stop their involvement in illegal drugs for good.
He said they will submit the list of those who had surrendered to Panglao Mayor Nila Montero and Vice-Mayor Fred Fuertes so that the local government unit can provide them with alternative livelihood.
The following day, four of the 14 drug personalities in Alicia whose names landed in the watchlist voluntarily surrendered to the municipal police station in response to Oplan Tok-Hang.
Each of the four submitted a sworn statement on how they started and where they got their supply of drugs. They then submitted themselves to a drug test.
PO3 Ferdinand Tutor of the Alicia Police Station said the drug personalities got their supply from outside the town.
In Talibon, 24 drug personalities surrendered as of 8:30 a.m. yesterday- -nine self-confessed pushers-users from sitio Balico and sitio Pasil of barangay Poblacion; and 15 users, also from sitio Pasil of barangay Poblacion, and purok 2 of barangay San Agustin.
Surrenderees in Jagna mostly came from barangays Canjulao, Pangdan and Can-upao.
For his part, PO2 Aldrin Asilo of Guindulman Police Station said the drug personalities who surrendered came from 18 barangays, some of them had been in their watchlist.
Police Inspector Panfilo Orpano Jr., Maribojoc chief of police, for his part, all the 20 personalities who surrendered were users. Six of them yielded last Friday and the 14 did on Monday morning.
Most of them came from barangays Poblacion and Dipatlong, Orpano said.
In Sikatuna, Mayor Jose Ellorimo Jr. said only one drug personality had surrendered in his town on July 4.
The mayor offered to provide employment opportunity for drug personalities who would surrender.
He also said only small-time drug personalities had remained in their town, and most of them might had stopped earlier yet.
REHABILITATION CENTER
The provincial government now faces the challenge of going fast-track with the establishment of a rehabilitation center.
In October last year, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan already approved a resolution supporting the Regional Development Council (RDC) endorsement to funding institutions for the construction and establishment of Bohol Youth Home upon the move of SP Member Tomas Abapo Jr.
The SP then also approved another resolution proposed by Abapo, requesting the three representatives of Bohol in Congress to help cause the immediate construction and establishment of the Bohol Youth Home by following up the RDC endorsement or find other additional funding sources to implement the project.
However, the Bohol Youth Home had initially been designed for youth offenders.
The Social, Economic and Environment Management (SEEM) cluster, headed by Liza Quirog, takes charge of tracking the progress of the project.
Quirog earlier announced that they already found a site for the project which is in a three-hectare property of the provincial government in Bilar.
The technical team of the provincial government had already finished the engineering design and the provincial government just awaits funding from the national government—one of the potential funders of the project.
Governor Edgar Chatto explained that the provincial government continues to work things out, considering that the project costs P98 million, and it requires hiring of experts and staff to man the facility.
The youth rehabilitation center eyed in Bilar will be the long overdue component of the implementation of theRepublic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 and the Presidential Decree 603 or The Child and Youth Welfare Code.
The site in Bilar has been chosen as conducive for the diversion program required in the laws.
In consonance with the laws, female children admitted to the institution will have separate quarters from the male children in the institution.
There will be facilities for the psycho-social reform approach such as a chapel, recreation area, mess hall, counseling room, comfort rooms, play rooms, quarters and function halls for the sessions.
Vale admitted they have a problem where to submit the self-confessed drug users who want to undergo rehabilitation in the city or just within the province.
The nearest rehabilitation center is in Argao in Cebu and submitting to the facility requires big amount of money.
For the meantime, Vale said they invite the surrenderees to seminars on the negative effects of drug abuse to the body and to the community.
The police personnel will also monitor the surrenderees for compliance of their commitment never to return to illegal drugs activities.