DAVIDE
Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III has called for communication and coordination among anti-drug agencies and law enforcers before any declaration is made to avoid releasing reports that will turn out to be inconsistent.
This came after Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño, the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7) director, and Senior Superintendent Eric Noble, Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) director, both clarified the police still have to finalize the report from mayors, local police chiefs and Barangay Anti-Drug Advisory Councils (Badac) that declared that 81 of the 1,066 barangays in Cebu province are now drug-free.
Taliño said the list was not yet final while Noble clarified that these drug-free barangays still have to undergo evaluation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA 7) and the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (Cpadao).
Cpadao chief Ivy Durano Meca earlier refuted the report, saying only the governor has the authority to make such a declaration and not the police.
But for the Davide, it would be more important that the police and other agencies should work on their coordination and the system of validating their reports because it could happen that after the police have declared a particular place to be drug-free, a drug user would still be arrested in the same place the next day.
At present, Davide has yet to declare a barangay in the province to be drug free. He said he would meet again with Meca next week to discuss the matter.
A team composed of members from Cpadao and the Philippine National Police (PNP) has also been formed to conduct the validation, which is also scheduled to start next week, Davide added.
Davide, meanwhile, lauded Noble and the CPPO’s efforts to fight illegal drugs in the province.
“(Noble) is very aggressive, very dedicated (to his) mandate, to his job. We can see how serious he is and I appreciate his aggressive crusade against illegal drugs. The province is very supportive of it and just recently, we gave incentives to police officers responsible for apprehending suspects during their operations against drugs,” the governor said partly in Cebuano.