CASH REWARD. Zamboanga City Mayor John Dalipe (6th from left) hands over a PHP50,000 check Tuesday (July 5, 2022) to Expedito Rebollos Jr. (5th from left), the chairperson of Calabasa, one of the two villages declared as drug-cleared by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing. The other declared drug-cleared barangay was Cacao. (Photo courtesy of Zamboanga CIO)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The city government gave cash rewards to two barangays declared as "drug-cleared" by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC).
Mayor John Dalipe handed over Tuesday the checks of PHP50,000 each to the recipient-barangays of Cacao and Calabasa through Barangay chairpersons Erwin Barcelona and Expedito Rebollos Jr., of Cacao and Calabasa, respectively.
“I urge all other barangays to exert their best efforts as well to attain the drug-cleared declaration,” Dalipe said as he lauded the two villages for their anti-drug efforts.
The panel declared Cacao and Calabasa as drug cleared on April 25 after the two villages met all the requirements needed by the ROCBDC.
Before declaring a barangay as drug cleared, the oversight committee must convene and validate the non-availability of drug supply in the area and the absence of drug transit activity, clandestine drug laboratories and chemical warehouses, marijuana cultivation sites, drug den, drug pushers, and users.
Cacao and Calabasa joined the 14 other villages that have been drug-cleared in recent years.
Thirteen of the 14 barangays earlier declared as drug cleared were Licomo, Limaong, Sibulao, Tictapul, Tigbalabag, Lapakan, Tolosa, Landang Laum, Lanzones, Pasilmanta, Lumayang, Capisan, Dulian, and Pamucutan.
The island village of Pangapuyan was acknowledged as unaffected by illegal drugs by authorities. (PNA)
