BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – Many Ilonggos were resentful when then President Rodrigo Duterte tagged this metropolis as the “most shabulized” in 2016.
Fast forward to 2024, the derisive tag is no longer applicable to this southern city, said Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr.
“Iba na ngayon. Kitang-kita natin under the leadership of Mayor Jerry Treñas,” Abalos told reporters after the “Buhay Ingatan, Droga’y Ayawan (BIDA) Rise and Run” event on Saturday.
Duterte tagged Iloilo City as the country’s “most shabulized” and the “bedrock of illegal drugs” after accusing the city’s then mayor, Jed Patrick Mabilog, of being a “drug protector.”
Mabilog had repeatedly denied the allegations but fled to Canada in 2017 for fear of his life. The Duterte administration waged a ruthless “war on drugs” marked by what human rights advocates claimed were thousands of extrajudicial killings that was ineffective in solving the problem.
In a press briefing over the weekend, Abalos said the current Marcos government’s approach to illegal drugs is different from Duterte’s.
“It’s going to the grassroots. It is knowing the problem and making sure all actions will be very, very effective,” said Abalos.
Over 8,000 people participated in Saturday’s fun run and the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. Abalos led the five-kilometer advocacy run which started outside the Iloilo City Hall at 6 a.m.
Abalos acknowledged the vital role of local government units in the government’s continued campaign against illegal drugs.
“We are doing a whole-of-nation approach. What is important is that with all the support, you make use of this to look at the gaps,” he said in an interview.
For his part, Mayor Treñas assured Abalos that the city and all its villages are supportive of the government’s anti-drug campaign.
“The problem with drugs is multi-faceted, that is why we support the police but at the same time, we work with the barangays because the real problem is with the barangays. And it is only through community effort that we will be able to stop this,” Treñas said.
BIDA data from Jan. 1, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024, showed the conduct of illegal drug awareness and prevention campaigns across 129,662 schools, 367,177 villages, and 156,009 workplaces, reaching 10,613,793 participants nationwide.
Over 6.2 million anti-illegal drugs informative materials were disseminated; 46,901 visitations were made in “uncleared barangays” and houses of 287,611 “persons who use drugs” nationwide; and 779,353 BIDA advocates championed the program’s cause.
The run, with the tagline “We Rise Against Drugs, and We Run From Drugs”, aims to raise awareness about the harmful effects of illegal substances and promote a healthy lifestyle among Iloilo City residents.
Such initiative aligns with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s “Buhay Ingatan, Droga’y Ayawan (Bida) Program”, a holistic approach to counteracting the proliferation of dangerous drugs./PN
