CENTRAL Visayas has the third most number of drug-infested barangays in the country, a report of the Philipppine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) revealed.
Of the 3,300 villages in the region, 2,626 still have drug pushers and users or a rate of 87.55 percent.
Zamboanga Peninsula Region tops the list of the most drug-infested areas with 96.17 percent while the National Capital Region (NCR) is second with 95.37 percent.
PDEA-7 Director Emerson Margate said they are doing their best to clear all barangays in Cebu from the menace of illegal drugs.
“We are doing a holistic approach in clearing the barangays,” he said.
Under the guidelines of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the barangays had to comply with 14 parameters including the absence of drug pushers, users, and laboratories in their area before they can be declared as drug-cleared.
One of the most important parameters is the absence of any drug personality in the village. Once proven that a drug-cleared barangay again had a drug pusher or user, it will have 30 days to explain and conduct interventions like house-to-house visits or report this directly to the police.
The PDEA-7 leads the oversight committee that assesses and monitors the barangays with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG-7), the police, Department of Health, and the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office.
At present, Margate said they are validating reports that at least 1,000 barangays in Central Visayas are now drug-free.
“We cannot just simply declare them as drug-free without proper validation by authorities,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte was informed about updates on the barangays that are still affected by illegal drugs.
Aside from conducting arrests, Margate said President Duterte wanted the PDEA to focus on clearing the villages by encouraging more drug dependents to surrender to authorities and stop their involvement in illegal drugs.