Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu provincial government is contemplating to include judges and prosecutors as members of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC).
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, in an interview on Thursday, July 11, said she planned to convene the PPOC as soon as possible to declare her administration’s war against drugs.
“Kitang tanan, we are agreed, unless drug lord ka or drug pusher ka, that the drug problem is a very serious menace, and wala tingali tawo in his right mind nga di ganahan i-fight ni nga menace,” Garcia said.
(We all agreed unless you are a drug lord or a drug pusher that the drug problem is a very serious menace, and no one who is in his right mind would go against fighting the drug menace.)
Garcia said she planned to get on board the participation of the judges and prosecutors in the province so that they could coordinate for the speedy disposition of cases especially those involving illegal drugs.
The governor also said she would have to inform the local chief executives regarding her plan to downgrade the Cebu Provincial Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO), which is currently a department in the Capitol, into a division under the Provincial Governor’s Office.
Garcia also said the efforts in addressing the drug problem in her term would be province-wide.
She also said that Cebu City, though an independent city from the province, would be welcome to join the province-initiated anti-drug campaigns.
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Garcia earlier announced that she planned to revert CPADAO, along with the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), Cebu Provincial Investment and Promotions Office (CPIPO) and Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) back under her supervision in order to cut cost.
At present, the PPOC is composed of the different departments in the Capitol, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), LGUs and law enforcement agencies such as the police, military and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)./dbs