CPADAO wants 38 barangays declared as drug-free

Albiar

THE CEBU Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) has endorsed 38 more barangays for declaration as drug-free barangays by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).

The 38 barangays are among the 73 barangays that already underwent verification by CPADAO which is a requirement before these barangays can be endorsed to the Oversight Committee, chaired by the PDEA-7 director, for further review and deliberation.

Oversight Committee members include representatives from CPADAO and Central Visayas offices of the Department of Health (DOH), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

“These (38) barangays (coming) from different towns of Cebu are now under deliberation by the committee,” Leia Albiar, PDEA-7 spokesperson, told Cebu Daily News.

A total of 160 of the province’s 1,066 barangays were already declared as drug-cleared barangays in 2017.

Carmen Remedios Durano-Meca, CPADAO head, said in an earlier interview that they intend to work for the declaration of 200 more barangays as drug-cleared barangays this year.

The 38 barangays now pending before the Oversight Committee are the first batch that CPADAO worked on for this year.

Another group of 35 barangays that is part of the 73 barangays that already underwent verification by CPADAO is also set to be endorsed to PDEA for validation.

The Oversight Committee, Albiar said, will conduct validation of the 38 barangays ahead of any committee deliberation in accordance with guidelines provided for by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) which includes the absence of drug pushers, users and laboratories in the area.

Albiar said the City Drug Abuse Offices in Lapu-Lapu City and Bohol province have also endorsed a list of 11 and 24 barangays, respectively to PDEA-7 for revalidation.