ONLY 10 out of 80 barangays in Cebu City have functioning Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (BADACs) since most of them are unaware about the council’s role in the war on drugs.
“That’s why we have this Anti-Drug Congress so it can serve as a refresher course for the barangays who have not activated their BADACs,” said Garry Lao, chief of the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse and Prevention (Cosap).
The congress held in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG-7) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) regional offices is a two-day event for the city’s barangays.
“This is very timely since the DILG is requiring all barangays to submit their list of drug personalities but until now we only have 10 barangays.
Barangay officials know who live in their communities and they know best how to deal with (drug suspects),” Lao said.
DILG-7 Regional Director Rene Burdeos said there are BADACs in Cebu City but majority of them are not functional.
“We have called their attention on this and we will observe in the next few days how they will respond,” he said.
The Local Government Code mandates barangays or villages to set up their own anti-drug abuse council to help the police and other law enforcement agencies in their campaign against illegal drugs.