In Central Visayas, 87 more brgys, 1 town earn drug-cleared status

Members of the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC) convened last April 13 and 14. | PDEA-7 photo

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — The municipality of Basay in Negros Oriental was the most recent local government unit in Central Visayas to have finally earned a drug-cleared status.

In an advisory, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) said that Basay was the first LGU in Negros Oriental and the seventh in the region to have earned the status.

Basay town was also joined by 87 barangays in the region in the declaration made by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC) during its blended meeting held from April 13-14, 2023.

Of the drug-cleared barangays, 41 came from Cebu Province, 22 from Negros Oriental, 16 from Bohol and 8 from Cebu City.

The ROCBDC blending meeting was also attended via Zoom by mayors, Anti-Drug Abuse Council (ADAC) members, and the punong barangays of the drug-cleared LGUs, who shared the challenges that they had to overcome before they earned the drug-cleared status as well as the best practices that they were adopting.

However, Jigger Montallana, the PDEA-7 director and chairman of the ROCBDC, said that the responsibility of the LGUs and the barangays would not end after they earned the drug-cleared status.

“While we aim to declare barangays as drug-cleared, the declaration is not the end of the implementation of anti-illegal drug programs. Monitoring of illegal drug activities, the conduct of anti-illegal drug operations, and drug abuse prevention initiatives will continue as the barangays will have to undergo a regular validation process to ensure that they have maintained their drug-cleared status,” Montallana said.

In its advisory, PDEA-7 said that Montallana was represented by Benjamin Recites III, their deputy regional director, during their deliberation.

The deliberation was also attended by other ROCBDC members that included Celerino Magto Jr., DILG-7 local government monitoring and Evaluation Division (LGMED), Police Major Rey Delos Santos of Police Regional Office 7, and Dr. Jonathan Neil Erasmo of DOH-7.

At present, a total of 1,531 of the 3,003 barangays in Central Visayas were already given a drug-cleared status while 116 are now considered as drug-free.

PDEA-7 said this would bring the region’s affection rate to only 45 percent.

The process of declaring barangays as drug-cleared and drug-free under the Barangay Drug Clearing Program (BDCP) is based on DDB Regulation No. 4, Series of 2021, the agency said.

BDCP is a holistic anti-illegal drug strategy aimed at reducing the drug affectation in the country by taking away drugs from the people, protecting the people from the lures of illegal drugs, and minimizing the impact of the drug problem in the community by integrating the support of duty bearers, local leaders, and other stakeholders, it added.

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