Former ‘tokhang’ cop denied Canadian residency

MANILA, Philippines — For allegedly being “complicit in the crimes committed by Philippine state authorities” during the implementation of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs almost nine years ago, a former Manila Police District (MPD) officer has been denied residency in Canada.

Despite admitting participation in Oplan Tokhang operations for only three months from December 2016 to February 2017 when he was assigned with the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU), Josue Limmong Ahuday was declared as “inadmissible” for taking part in “Operation Double Barrel” – which the Federal Court of Canada described as “a well-documented state-sponsored nationwide killing campaign that encouraged police officers to shoot and kill anyone involved with drugs at any level, as a way to control crime.”

In a decision dated Jan. 7, 2025, the court upheld an earlier decision of the Immigration Division rejecting the former police officer’s residency application pursuant to the country’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), “for complicity in crimes against humanity stemming from his employment in the drug enforcement activities of the PNP (Philippine National Police).”

Judge Angus Grant, in his ruling, dismissed Ahuday’s appeal and claims of insufficient evidence “that (he) was complicit in crimes against humanity” or that the former MPD police officer “did not engage in, and was not aware of or willfully blind to, torture or other abuses, and hence he did not voluntarily make a significant and knowing contribution to any criminal purpose held by any part of the PNP.”

Ahuday, based on court records, was assigned at the MPD’s Jose Abad Santos Station from January 2012 to June 2021, and with the Mobile Patrol Unit until December 2016 when he was eventually transferred to the DEU and became part of the implementation of Oplan Tokhang until February 2017 when he asked to leave the unit “as it was a dangerous position and he was getting married and, in his words, he wanted to stay alive.”

The court’s ruling mentioned that under Duterte’s war on drugs, “both drug dealers and drug users were targeted by the PNP in arbitrary and unlawful killings, as part of the government-directed campaign. According to multiple reports, this campaign of extrajudicial executions in largely impoverished areas of Manila and other urban areas already stood at 7,000 casualties by late January 2017.”

“Integral to Operation Double Barrel were ‘Tokhang Operations’ which aimed to create ‘watch lists’ of known drug users and drug dealers, who would be visited by police and local authorities and urged to ‘surrender.’ If a suspect did not surrender, the police would attempt to ‘verify’ their drug use, by interrogating friends and neighbors. These visits were often used to confirm the identities and whereabouts of a targeted drug suspect, and frequently ended with the violent death of the drug user,” the decision added.

The ruling further mentioned that related to Oplan Tokhang operations “were ‘buy-bust’ operations. After a drug suspect surrendered or was ‘verified’ by a drug unit and put on a watch list, a faked buy-bust encounter would occur, in which a drug enforcement team, frequently undercover, would raid the suspect’s house. All too often, these raids ended in the extrajudicial killing of the buy-bust target.”

Ahuday, along with his witnesses, the decision said, testified that part of his duties included conducting door-to-door visits, attempting to convince suspected drug users to “surrender” and referring suspected drug users for “verifications” to other drug enforcement units or for “intelligence” or other follow-up actions.

The former police officer claimed his DEU team was engaged in “community outreach” programs conducting house visitations for drug suspects that worked in parallel with a second DEU team engaged in the more direct enforcement actions, including busts and raids.

Court records mentioned that Ahuday even received a medal years later for the “implementation of anti-illegal drug campaign” and that after leaving the DEU, he “never indicated that he sought to leave the drug unit over concerns with the nature of the Duterte war on drugs.”

Ahuday continued working for the PNP at the same station and was awarded a promotion in May 2019 before he resigned in June 2021 for the purpose of immigrating to Canada on a spousal open work permit, and was included in his wife’s application for permanent residence as a dependent spouse.?

Court records show that in May 2023, he received correspondence from the Canadian Border Services Agency advising him that he had been reported as inadmissible to Canada on grounds of violating human or international rights pursuant to s.35(1)(a) of the IRPA. — Emmanuel Tupas