Don’t blame villages for failures, Bato told

Dela Rosa

OPLAN DOUBLE BARREL

The Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership should not solely blame the barangays for whatever shortcomings were incurred in the government’s war against illegal drugs, a top anti-drug official in the province said yesterday.

“I really understand the sentiments and status of the barangays because I see the situation of the Barangay Anti-Abuse Councils (Badac),” said Ivy Durano-Meca, executive director of the Cebu Provincial Anti-drug Abuse Office (CPADAO).

Meca said this in response to PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s threat to file charges against barangay officials who fail to maximize use of their barangay anti-drug abuse councils.

Dela Rosa said records from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) showed that 12,000 out of 42,000 barangays nationwide have no functioning BADACs.

He said this had severely affected the PNP’s Oplan Double Barrel since the BADACs are mandated under the law to create and institute programs on anti-drug abuse and prevention in their communities.

But Meca said it is not easy for barangays to have functioning BADACs due to their limited personnel and resources.

“BADACs should be continually capacitated in order to be active in the war against illegal drugs,” she said.

Still Meca said there are five barangays in the province who will face charges due to their failure to create their own BADACs.

“For them, they don’t consider the BADAC as important,” she told reporters.

Meca declined to identify these barangays but she admitted that 70 percent of the 1,066 barangays in the province have functional BADACs while the rest still have to organize their own. /with Inquirer report