CEBU CITY -- Another 59 barangays in Cebu Province were declared drug-cleared on Tuesday by the Oversight Committee headed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).
The barangays cleared by the Oversight Committee are in the City of Naga and the towns of Alegria, Borbon, Medillin, Oslob, Samboan, San Francisco, San Remigio, Sogod, and Tabogon.
Eighteen of the drug-cleared barangays are in Borbon, 16 in Tabogon, nine in Alegria, four each in Oslob and San Francisco, three in Medillin, and two in Samboan, while the rest are in Naga, San Remigio, and Sogod.
As this developed, Cebu Province may bag its fourth consecutive Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) Award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) this year as it only needed 28 more barangays to be declared drug-cleared to win the most-coveted plum.
A provincial government unit must have 20 percent of its barangays cleared of drugs to earn the SGLG Award, and Cebu Province just met the requirement now that it has 244 of its 1,066 villages cleared of the drug menace.
Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) chief Ivy Durano-Meca said as of last month, the province needed to have 213 of its barangays cleared and they never thought they would achieve the required 20 percent in less than 30 days.
As of May 12, only 185 barangays in the province have been declared drug-free by the Oversight Committee -- 28 villages short of the 20 percent requirement.
“We really thought we won’t be able to pass the test of good governance this year as we were 28 barangays short with only a few days left before the DILG begins their evaluation. Cebu Province will get its fourth straight SGLG after all,” Meca said.
The DILG is set to start its assessment and evaluation of the more than 1,700 local government units (LGU) in the country for this year’s SGLG Awards anytime this month. (PNA)
