ILOILO CITY -- Roughly 300 barangays in Western Visayas will soon be declared clear of illegal drugs, said the director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Visayas (PDEA-6).
Regional Director Wardley Getalla said that the Regional Oversight Committee is already done with the deliberation of the applications of these barangays for the drug-cleared status.
The committee started with the deliberation of 45 barangays last January, 120 barangays in February, and 135 barangays this March.
Getalla said that their applications were already processed but members of the oversight committee are yet to sign their certifications.
He said the committee was being careful that they re-validated the candidate-barangays and deployed intelligence officers to re-check if these villages passed the parameters to be declared drug-cleared.
“They are checking if there were really no presence of drug users and pushers in the barangay but definitely there will be results that will come out soon. We are just waiting for the members of the oversight committee to sign the certifications of the barangays that these were already drug-cleared,” he said.
Getalla said that another batch of applications from 150 barangays is lined-up to undergo deliberation by the regional oversight committee in April.
He said that most of these barangays are in the province of Aklan.
The Regional Oversight Committee already cleared 145 barangays in the region from June last year.
In declaring an area drug-free, the PDEA and the Philippine National Police consider factors such as non-availability of illegal drugs, absence of illegal drug transshipment activity, absence of clandestine illegal drug laboratory, absence of clandestine illegal drug warehouse, absence of clandestine illegal chemical warehouse, absence of marijuana cultivation site, absence of drug den, absence of drug pushers, absence of drug users/dependents, absence of protectors/coddlers and financiers.
He said that the barangay should also maintain a voluntary rehabilitation desk so they are prepared in case that drug users re-emerge in their area.
The drug-cleared barangays will still be subjected to re-validation, three months after the declaration, he added.
“If we will find out that there are still drug users and pushers, we will recall the declaration and they will not be a drug-cleared barangay anymore,” he said. (PNA)
Photo by Cindy Ferrer
