ILOILO City – Out of 12 applicants, four barangays were declared as cleared of illegal drugs during the meeting of the Regional Oversight Committee on the Barangay Drug Clearing Program (ROC-BDCP) on Friday.
These barangays were Ambilay (Panitan), Santo Niño (President Roxas) and Amaga (Sigma), all in Capiz province, and Barangay Avila of Buenavista, Guimaras.
Barangay-applicants in Iloilo City (Santo Domingo, Arevalo and Jalandoni-Bagumbayan, City Proper) did not pursue their applications; their village officials were still monitoring the presence of new drug personalities, according to Shey Tanaleon, spokesperson of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 6.
The others lacked some required documents, Tanaleon said.
She also said 93 villages were able to retain their drug-cleared status after a thorough assessment by the ROC, out of 100 applicants for retention.
The barangays that retained their status came from Aklan (Altavas and Batan), Iloilo (Lemery, Concepcion, Santa Barbara, and Mina), Guimaras (Sibunag, San Lorenzo and Nueva Valencia), Antique (Pandan and San Remigio), and Capiz (Jamindan).
Tanaleon said representatives from the different barangays assisted by their local government units (LGUs) presented and defended their applications and folders in compliance with the parameters of the BDCP mandated by the Dangerous Drugs Board’s Regulation No. 3 series of 2017, with the ROC members conducting an actual evaluation of each participating barangay applicants.
“PDEA-6 will continue to closely collaborate with the concerned counterparts to increase the number of barangays to be cleared through proper implementation of DDB regulation No. 3, series of 2017 and the Omnibus Procedures in Declaring a Drug Affected Barangay as drug-cleared areas,” Tanaleon said.
As of now, 84 percent have been cleared of illegal drugs in Western Visayas, and PDEA-6 director Alex Tablate who spearheaded the clearing program, is expecting more applicants for the next deliberation.
Also present during the deliberation were members of the panel: Police Lieutenant Victorino Romanillos Jr. of the Police Regional Office 6; Maricel Bechayda of the Department of Interior and Local Government 6 and John Richard Lapascua, senior health program officer of the Department of Health Region 6./PN
