‘Tokhang big time’

Ian Alfredo Magno

IT is quite disturbing why, despite the recently reloaded “Tokhang” efforts, prohibited drugs still proliferate by the billion pesos even in the most unsuspecting places.

There seems to be three schools of thought which could explain this rather stubborn phenomenon.  First, drug suppliers are bent on keeping their investment in this illegal industry.  Second, drug suppliers are simply unfazed amid the mortal threat of the government’s war on drugs. Or thirdly, these shocking expositions of colossal volumes of illegal drugs prove that drug suppliers have been disturbed in their burrows and are now constrained to be on the run, thus popping their heads here and there, somewhat vulnerably apparently.

First school of thought: it is a business.  And just like any legitimate industry, which experiences highs or lows, and sporadic crises at times, key players in the illegal drugs industry may be viewing the present lockdown as a seasonal threat to the business.  After all, they have been there for decades.  What is that compared to a fleeting administration’s war on drugs, which may even dissipate upon the assumption of another president who does not have war on drugs in his/her checklist?  Therefore, it might just be a matter of time when operations revert to business as usual.  (Quite a display of a stubborn sort of positive thinking, huh?)

Second school of thought: they are not afraid.  After all, as powerful, as moneyed as they are, replete with useful connections, they can always make things happen – or so they believe.  Like any other boss, these bigtime drug suppliers do not feel the chills.  No sweat.  Why?  They have “foot soldiers” to do their work on the ground anyway.  Somebody somewhere is doing the dirty legwork for them.  And if by any chance their guy gets unlucky and catches a bullet in the head from a motorcycleiding gunman, who cares?  Their men get killed and they do not bat an eyelash.  They simply do not have the slightest care at all.  To them, it might likely be a mere collateral damage to operations, which is not as fatal to their overall well-oiled drugs machinery that actually operates internationally.  At the end of the day, it’s the bottomline that counts.  What is a moment’s sacrifice (of other people’s lives) if they get to obtain their R.O.I. anyway?  As long as they remain incognito and untouched, why fear?

Third school of thought:  ground operators of big-time drug suppliers cannot stay in one place anymore and must, therefore, be constantly on the move – thus vulnerably rearing their ugly heads.  Similarly, when a burrow full of rodents is sanitized with pesticide, the lair is disturbed.  In no time, rodents would be seen scrambling in disorganized fashion.  Apparently, drug exposés steadily reported in the news during the previous months were just the tip of the iceberg.  And it seems that it is only now that massive supplies of illegal drugs are unearthed more often.  Thanks to the disorganized scramble of these “rodents” or ground operators of bigtime drug suppliers.  What gives?

In sum, the drug war is beginning to make sense to the common man’s common sense. Tokhang has since been renamed twice from its original moniker – from Tokhang, to Tokhang-double barrel, then to Tokhangeloaded.  If given the chance though, I would rather rename it yet again to Tokhang-big time.  The idea is to cut the supply in the streets.  Hence, the gameplan should be to go after big-time suppliers.  Remember, if there are no suppliers, there would be no dealers.  Hence, Tokhang big time.

(Ian Alredo T. Magno is a Cagayan de Oro-based lawyer. E-mail: ianalfredom@gmail.com)