GENERAL SANTOS CITY – More barangays in Region 12 (Soccsksargen) are due for assessment in the next two months for possible declaration as drug-cleared areas, an official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.
Naravy Duquiatan, PDEA-Region 12 director, said Tuesday they received applications from over a dozen barangays for the validation of their illegal drug status and compliance to the requirements of the government’s drug clearing program.
She said these are from among the 197 barangays in the region’s four provinces and four cities that have not yet been declared as drug-cleared.
Some 118 of these were previously listed as moderately affected and 79 as slightly affected based on the assessment conducted by the agency, which co-chairs the regional oversight committee along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Duquiatan said they have coordinated with the other members of the committee, which includes the Department of Health and Philippine National Police, for the upcoming validation activities.
The parameters for the assessment are the “non-availability of drug supply; absence of drug-dependent, pusher, user, absence of clandestine drug laboratory; active involvement of barangay officials in anti-drug activities; the existence of drug awareness, preventive education and information programs; and the existence of voluntary and compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation processing desks.”
Instead of just accounting for the drug surrenderers in their respective areas, barangays are now required to make sure that they graduate from the community-based rehabilitation program.
As of end-February, a PDEA-12 report said 940 of the region’s 1,158 barangays were already declared as drug-cleared.
This figure is up by eight from the 932 cleared barangays as of November last year. It listed some 21 barangays as unaffected so far by the illegal drug problem.
The official said the regional oversight committee’s re-validation activities are also ongoing for the drug-cleared barangays.
“We actually information regarding the resumption of illegal drug activities in several barangays and we’re looking into that right now,” Duquiatan told reporters.
Based on the provisions of Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation 3 issued in 2017, barangay councils are required to submit documents for revalidation three months after their declaration as drug-cleared.
PDEA-12 records showed that most of the drug-cleared barangays were declared as such in 2017 and 2018. (PNA)
