ILOILO City – The government’s regional oversight committee on the campaign against illegal drugs will be deliberating today the application of 263 Western Visayas barangays to be declared as drug-cleared.
The deliberation will be held at Casa Real de Iloilo, the old provincial capitol.
Of the 263 barangays, 119 are from Iloilo City. The rest are from the provinces of Guimaras, Antique, Aklan, Capiz, and Iloilo.
“Applicants should meet the guidelines set by the Dangerous Drugs Board,” said Director Alex Tablate of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6, lead agency of regional oversight committee. These were:
* non-availability of illegal drugs
* absence of drug dens, pushers and users, protectors or financiers
* absence of clandestine drug laboratories, warehouses, marijuana cultivation sites
* no drug transit or transshipment activity
* active involvement of barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials in anti-drug activities
* conduct of drug awareness, preventive education and information campaign
* operation of voluntary and compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation processing desk
According to Tablate, the deliberation will be attended by, among others, Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas who also chairs the Iloilo City Anti-Drug Abuse Council and representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Health, Philippine National Police and local government units.
In Iloilo province, nine municipalities also applied to be declared as drug-cleared. These were Calinog, Balasan, Estancia, San Dionisio, Banate, Leganes, Carles, Anilao, and Sara.
Six Iloilo towns were previously declared as drug-cleared. These were Miag-ao, Igbaras, Guimbal, Dingle, Binagawan, and recently Concepcion.
Iloilo’s component city of Passi City was similarly declared.
This 2020 the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas aims to get the 105 remaining high-value drug targets it failed to neutralize in 2019. Included in these targets are elected public officials serving as drug protectors.
The No. 1 target remains to be Ernesto Bolivar, a resident of Barangay Guinacas, Pototan, Iloilo who has been in hiding since 2017.
Police units across the region are hunting him down, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
Of the 105 drug targets, 50 are in Negros Occidental, 32 in Bacolod City, 11 in Iloilo province, four in Capiz, three each in Antique and Iloilo City, and one each in Guimaras and in Aklan.
Police data obtain by Panay News showed that in 2019 a total of 922 high-value drug targets in Western Visayas were arrested, 100 could no longer be located, 30 were killed in police operations, and 444 voluntarily surrendered.
Of the 30 drug suspects killed in police operations, Iloilo City had the most number at nine, followed by Iloilo province (eight), Bacolod City (five), Negros Occidental (four), Antique (two) and one each in Antique and Capiz.
For the 2020 targets, Malong did not discount the possibility that the number (150) could still change.
“Basi may madugang or may mabuhin,” said Malong./PN
