A CEBU provincial official is calling for coordination of concerned agencies in addressing the issue of minor drug surrenderers.
Carmen Durano-Meca, Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) director, said yesterday that it would be difficult for them to identify minors among the 42,158 drug surrenderers in the province.
But last month, Meca said that thy had identified at least 1,000 drug surrenderers as minors.
She, however, cited the difficulty in identifying these minors among the drug surrenderers.
Meca attributes this to lack of coordination between agencies that should be at the forefront in addressing the issue. “Up to now, that’s the reason why there is no action that has been taken to address the minor surrenderers,” she said.
“Wa man pa gyud nato na-classify pa gyud na how many of these are in school, how many of these are out of school, wala man gyud,” she said.
She said that the Department of Education (DepEd) had not been informed about them or is aware of who these minors are and whether they went to school or are not.
She said DepEd had not also initiated a move to address this issue.