Iron fist...

TATLO LANG ang maaari ‘nyong puntahan: Mamatay kayo, sumurender kayo, o maaresto kayo. (You can only do three things: Die, surrender, or get arrested).

More serious vow than empty threat did Police Regional Office 3 (PRO3) director Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino issued before some 10,000 surrendering drug pushers and users gathered at the Bren Z. Guiao Sports Complex last week.

Tandaan 'nyo, ang kapulisan ay hindi nakikipag-bolahan sa inyo. (Remember, the police are not joking around with you), Aquino stressed.

As though his words were not enough to convince the assembly of dopeheads, as we called them – okay, ourselves – in our own long bygone psychedelic times, he rattled off the latest statistics in the anti-drug campaign in Central Luzon: 10,194  drug pushers/users surrendered in Pampanga, bringing to nearly 30,000 the regional total; 1,000 drug suspects arrested; and, with the most emphasis, 65 killed for resisting arrest – all in the three full weeks of July, 2016.

Gusto 'nyo bang mamatay na rin kayo (Do you also want to die)? So Aquino asked.

Hindi (No)! So thundered the assembled drug suspects, but of course.

So what must they do to stay alive, or to avoid what PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa euphemized as “changing your birthdate to November 2”?

Stop selling and/or using illegal drugs. Don’t even think of fighting arresting cops. 

And should they backslide to their old, bangag ways? Docketed in the police files are their real names, even aliases; their addresses, and other information, which would make it far easier to track them down.

And yes, Aquino said, it is not only the police that would do the hunting for recidivists, but the Armed Forces of the Philippines too: Kaya hindi lang bala ng 9mm ang tatama sa inyo, pati bala ng M-16 at M-14 ay tatama sa inyo (Not only bullets of 9mm but also those of M-16s and M-14s will hit you.)” 

As severe, if not more so, is the fate awaiting policemen involved in drugs: Itatapon namin itong mga pasaway na mga pulis sa Basilan at sila ang ilalaban namin sa mga Abu Sayyaf doon. Tuwang-tuwa nga si Presidente Duterte nang malaman na itatapon ang mga pulis na ito sa Basilan. (We will throw these rogue policemen to Basilan to fight the Abu Sayyaf there. President Duterte was very happy when he learned that these policemen would be sent to Basilan).

Of the 100 cops assigned in Central Luzon earlier announced by Aquino as allegedly involved in illegal drugs as users and/or pushers, or even protectors, 83 have been deployed in Mindanao, the rest having gone AWOL. This, according to Aquino himself during an informal meeting at Camp Olivas just this Wednesday past.

And, he said, there’s a next batch – “even higher in number than the first one” – of cops involved in drugs to exile to the South, “most preferably to ‘BaSuTa’ (Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi).”

Hard as Bato. The way of this Aquino.

...Heart of the matter

TO AQUINO’s fist of fury, Gov. Lilia G. Pineda’s heart of the mother.

At the surrender and pledging rites of the over 10,000 drug suspects, she pleaded

Pinakiusap ko po kay PD, kay RD, sa mga chief of police na huwag na ninyo silang katukin, baka sabihin lumaban. Ipakuha 'nyo na lang sa kapitan para ilabas sila. Pinakiusap ko na po 'yon, na huwag nang kakatukin tapos lulusubin ang bahay. Lumabas na lang po kayo, sagot po kayo ni Gov (I requested the police provincial director, the police regional director, the chiefs of police not to knock on your doors, it might be said they resisted. Let the village chiefs get them. I requested for that, that they don't knock on your doors and barge into your homes. Just come out, you will be in Gov’s care).”

Pineda there well aware of police Operation Tokhang (knocking on the houses of drug suspects to convince them to surrender) turning into knock-knock-bang-bang – the drug suspects ending up dead, reportedly while fighting it out with the cops or grabbing their firearms.

No, it does not end with the surrender of the drug suspects: "I don't want them to just surrender. We will assist them and their families through the provision of educational and livelihood assistance."

This, even as she lamented where she could have gone wrong -- Saan ako nagkamali? – shocked at the large number of surrenderees.

Pineda has called on all LGUs and government line agencies in the province, the religious sector and the academe and all other stakeholders to enlist their support in a holistic approach towards the reformation and rehabilitation of the surrendered drug victims.

This, as she acknowledged that the P10-million allocation for Dalan ning Pamagbayu (Road to Change) approved by the Provincial Peace and Order Council “is not enough” to address the needs of the “reformists.”

LGUs can allot the necessary budget for rehabilitation and closely monitor their activities.

Line agencies, like TESDA, can provide services to develop the skills and capabilities of the surrenderees towards economic productivity.

"What is critical is to engage them in activities to make sure that they will totally quit their addiction and have a better life. I am planning to conduct a tree planting activity in Mt. Arayat as part of their physical fitness cum livelihood program," the governor said.

“And, of utmost important, the support system from their families as they turn over a new leaf in their life towards a brighter, drug-free future.” The Gov, all a matter of the heart there, as ever.