DILG to Cebu City government: Improve anti-drug campaign

The Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention is conducting suprise drug test in the offices and departments of the city hall as well as barangays. | Photo Courtesy of Jonah John Rodriguez, head of COSAP

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City has a lot to improve on its anti-drug campaign and should aim for drug-cleared barangays.

Lawyer Kenneth Lucero,  officer-in-charge of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Cebu City, said this after the recent audit of the Anti-Drug Abuse Council (ADAC) performance of all local government units.

Lucero said Cebu City had much to improve on from its 2018 performance, although he did not reveal the exact ratings of the city.

He said the city lacked drug-cleared barangays that had already been identified in other local government units (LGUs), and this should be one of the focus of Cebu City with their City ADAC.

Cebu City failed to get an award for best performing ADAC in the region. The award was given to municipalities Balilihan, Candijay, Calape, and Garcia Hernandez in the Province of Bohol; and municipalities of San Remigio and Poro in the Province of Cebu.

“Ang audit kay pag 2018 pa, karon lang ang awarding sa mga nakaperfect. It doesn’t mean nga wala na awardan wala na kapasar. Naa lang silay angay iimprove,” said Lucero in a phone interview.

(The audit was done for 2018, but the awarding of the best performing towns is this year. It doesn’t mean that if the LGU was not awarded, it did not pass. They just need to improve things.)

Jonah John Rodriguez, City Substance Abuse Prevention Office (COSAP) head, said that they would be working on improving the anti-drug campaign of the city.

Rodriguez told CDN Digital that they would be focusing on Barangays Sudlon I and Sto. Niño as the two first areas to be drug-cleared.

“We are always coordinating with the DILG for our programs. We aim to have 100 percent compliance by 2020,” he said.

Rodriguez said that they planned to intensify the campaign against illegal drugs by making mandatory drug prevention education in schools from Grade 5 to Grade 12.

He said that the fight against drug abuse should start from the youths. /dbs