Current Issues and Trends on Drug Education

Introduction
The Philippine National Police manages Oplan Double Barrel as part of its
involvement in President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs in the
Philippines. It consists of two main components: Oplan Tokhang and Oplan
HVT. Tokhang is characterized as the lower barrel approach while HVT which stands
for high value targets is described as the police's high barrel approach.[218] The
operation was launched in 2016.
The Philippine police temporarily suspended its operations in October 2017 after a
directive by President Duterte amidst reports of abuse by the police with
the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) taking over as the leading agency
against illegal drug activities in the Philippines. The police resumed operations in
January 2018 with the police officially playing a supporting role to PDEA in Duterte's
campaign.
OPLAN TOKHANG
One component of the war on drugs by the administration of President Rodrigo
Duterte is Oplan Tokhang. The name of the operation was derived from
the toktok (knock) and hangyo (plead). As the name suggests, Oplan Tokhang
involves the police visiting the houses of individuals suspected to be involved in the
illegal drug trade or as users, to persuade them to stop their activities and submit
themselves to authority for potential rehabilitation. A more comprehensive guideline
by the Philippine National Police then under the leadership of Police Chief Ronald
dela Rosa was released prior to the resumption of police operations on the war on
drugs in January 2019 after it was temporarily postponed.[220] Tokhang is
characterized as a Police Community Relations operation.[221]
Under the guidelines, in a single operation, four police officers selected by the
locality's police chief designated as tokhangers to visit the suspects' houses in full
uniform. They are to be accompanied by one member of the barangay, municipality
or city anti-drug abuse council, one representative from the PNP human-rights
affairs office or any human rights advocate and at least one from the religious sector,
members of the media or other prominent personalities in the area. They are only
allowed to enter the suspect's house upon consent of the suspect or the house owner.
The police coordinates with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the local
anti-drug abuse councils for the conduct of the operations. The guidelines include
the option for drug suspects to surrender themselves to the police or the barangay
hall and option to avail rehabilitation. They are not required to sign any document.
If the suspect refuse to surrender or engages the visiting Oplan Tokhang team, their
case are to be endorsed to the Drug Enforcement Units which will conduct relevant
police operations including case build-up and negation.[220]
The policy was first used in a more local scale in Davao, when Dela Rosa was still
the police chief of the locality leading police visits to drug suspects houses. The
word tokhang has become associated with killings related to the campaign against
illegal drugs prior to the release of the guideline[220] with the PDEA chief General
Aaron Aquino urging to discontinue the use "thokhang" to refer to the government's
operations.[219]
OPLAN HIGH VALUE TRAGETS (HVT)
Oplan High Value Targets (HVT) is a component of the Philippine National Police
operations under Operation Double Barrel which aims to arrest
and neutralize individuals which the police alleged to be involved in the country's
illegal drug trade. They include drug lords and pushers who operate in groups.[222] In
its November 2016 report, the PNP Directorate for Intelligence said that of the 956
validated high-value targets identified by the national police since the start of the
campaign, 23 were killed in police operations, 109 were arrested, and 361
surrendered.[222] This accounts for over 54.6% of the total identified HVTs while
another 29 targets were listed as deaths under investigation. The PNP also reported
that at least ₱1.445 billion in illegal drugs have been seized in the first four months
of their campaign against HVTs.[222]
The high-value targets identified by the national police include Albuera Mayor
Rolando Espinosa who earlier surrendered to the PNP before being killed in prison,
and alleged number 2 Visayas drug lord Franz Sabalones, the brother of San
Fernando, Cebu Mayor Fralz Sabalones, who surrendered to the PNP after being
named by President Duterte in his narco-list speech.[223] The high-value targets also
include the following alleged drug lords and local chief executives killed since the
start of the drug war on July 1, 2016.