ILOILO City – Around 101 villages here will soon be declared free from illegal drugs, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-6 (PDEA-6) regional director Alex Tablate said.
He added the 101 villages are candidates for drug clearing on Dec. 17 as part of the 2019 Drug Prevention and Control Week.
According to Tablate, an oversight committee will deliberate and validate the applicant barangays to check if they past the parameters.
The oversight committee includes the PDEA as the lead agency, the Philippine National Police, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Health, the local government unit, and other government offices.
“We could not easily declare a certain barangay as drug-free because it will pass series of deliberation and a series of on-sight validation to know if a village complies with the needed parameters,” Tablate said.
According to PDEA, a village can be declared drug-cleared or free from illegal drug activities if it meets the following requirements:
* Non-availability of drug supply.
* Absence of drug den, pusher, user
* Absence of clandestine drug laboratory
* Active involvement of barangay officials in anti-drug activities
* Existence of drug awareness, preventive education and information
* Existence of voluntary and compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation processing desk.
Tablate said these requirements were mandated under Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation No. 3 series of 2017.
Iloilo City has 180 barangays and 34 were already declared “drug-cleared” based on the validation and assessment of the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing Program.
Tablate said he is confident the 101 applicant villages will be declared free from illegal drugs.
“Wala naman tayong mga laboratories dito at mga malalaking drug groups na nag-ooperate. Kung mayro’n man tayo nanahuli mga individual at hindi grupo,” added Tablate./PN
