[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’ Drug coddlers in the villages – PDEA, ICPO ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – Drug personalities enjoy protection from some barangay captains and councilmen, according to the city police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6.
During a meeting of the Iloilo City Anti-Illegal Drug Abuse Council (ICADAC) yesterday, PDEA regional director Gil Pabilona and city police director Senior Superintendent Remus Zacharias Canieso confirmed having village chiefs and kagawads in their respective drug watch lists.
Both also said they did not have “city-level drug protectors” in their lists.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has been tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte as an illegal drugs coddler, a charge the city’s chief executive vehemently denied.
It was Mabilog who sought clarification from PDEA and the city police yesterday about drug protectors in the metropolis.
According to Pabilona, PDEA was continually validating its list.
Canieso, on the other hand, said these barangay-based drug coddlers were also targets of antidrug operations.
He declined to name these barangay officials but said they were less than 10.
Mabilog asked PDEA and the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) to give the ICADAC their lists of barangay-based drug protectors.
The mayor, who heads the ICADAC, said the council could recommend the filing of administrative charges against these barangay officials.
Mabilog reiterated his call to barangay officials, especially to barangay captains to make the campaign against illegal drugs their top priority.
“If we are free from illegal drugs and Iloilo City is drug-cleared, our peace and order situation will improve. The crime volume will continue to drop,” he said.
According to Mabilog, “ more or less” 400 drug personalities were already arrested from January to June this year by PDEA and the police.
PDEA and the ICPO also said there were no new drug lords in their respective watch lists.
They only have one, the fugitive Richard Prevendido, a resident of Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district.
Despite the combined P1.1-million bounty for Prevendido’s arrest from the city and provincial governments of Iloilo, the suspect remains at large./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
