By Aaron Recuenco
Police regional commanders were ordered on Monday to submit the top 10 most wanted high-value targets in their respective areas of jurisdiction as the Philippine National Police (PNP) has stepped up its campaign against illegal drugs.
Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa
(Police Regional Office 10 / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP officer-in-charge, said that the submitted list of illegal drugs high-value targets (HVTs) will be used in the recalibration of drug war that would focus on what he described as middle to upper HVTs.
"I asked them (police regional commanders) to submit the Top 10 HVTs in their region so that we are able to determine in terms of priority because we want them to be identified and neutralized," said Gamboa.
Once the HVTs are identified, Gamboa said they would be subjected to intense police operations that include application of search warrant.
Gamboa said that his order to come up with the list of HVTs comes with an instruction for the regional commanders to continue monitoring the illegal drugs situation in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
"There should be a continuing appreciation on the drug problem at the regional level because they will have targets now," said Gamboa.
The same policy of having target list , according to Gamboa, will be implemented at the provincial, city and town levels.
"On our part, of course we also have priorities here at the national level," said Gamboa.
Last year, the same strategy was implemented at the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) wherein all police Drug Enforcement Units in Metro Manila to come up with Top 10 list of high-value targets on a monthly basis.
Then NCRPO chief and now Chief of Directorial Staff Guillermo Eleazar also ordered all DEUs in Metro Manila to neutralize at least 50 percent of those in their respective list every month.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin in September last year, Eleazar said that the strategy behind his order is that those who were either arrested or killed would be replaced of those at the bottom or of new players until all drug personalities in Metro Manila are wiped out.