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The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said Vice President Leni RoTbredo suggested on retooling or repackaging the government's "Oplan Tokhang" instead of scrapping it.

In a chance interview in Pasig City, Police Lieutenant General Archie Francisco Gamboa said the Interagency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD) meeting with Robredo went well.

"She is also convinced that tokhang--as I said tokhang came from a visayan word --but if you look into it there is no killing in tokhang because you ask then you plead," said Gamboa, the PNP officer-in-charge.

"As a matter of fact, her mindset was changed after her briefing with the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency)," he said.

Gamboa admitted that the use of the word was not controlled, making people link it to killing.

"That is why her suggestion is retooling on how we are going to present that word tokhang or probably balance it with another one just to erase the notion that tokhang means death which is not so," he said.

According to PNP data, a total of 6,847 suspected drug personalities were killed in alleged shootouts with law enforcers since July 1, 2016 to July 31, 2019.

He said Robredo wants them to come up with measures that will change the perception of the public on their campaign.

Asked if the word "tokhang" will stay, Gamboa said they "insisted" to the vice president to keep using it.

He added Robredo decided to not scrap the program after studying it.

"She is convinced after studying (that) the tokhang, double barrel, double barrel alpha, reloaded and now the community based are all in order," said Gamboa.

Other matters discussed were going forward on the campaign, measuring of success and coming up with unified figures.

"All of these things are addressed already by ICAD. It's just a matter of letting her understand that these things already existed," said Gamboa. Ella Dionisio/DMS