PDEA: 5,000 barangays cleared of drugs

MANILA, Philippines — More than 5,000 barangays have been cleared of illegal drugs since the Duterte administration launched its war on narcotics, an official of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said yesterday.

The agency’s spokesman Derrick Carreon said more than half of the number of barangays in the country or about 58 percent are affected by the drug menace. 

“So far… 58.1 percent, with 24,424 of the 42,036 barangays nationwide considered affected in varying degrees,” Carreon said during the “Real Numbers” briefing at Malacañang. “But the good news is that as of December, we have recovered 5,077 drug affected barangays.”  

Carreon explained that drug-affected areas are grouped into three: “slightly affected,” where drug users are present; “moderately affected” or areas with drug pushers and “seriously affected” or places with shabu tiangge or store, clandestine laboratory or marijuana plantation or chemical warehouse.

“The challenge is to clear drug-affected barangays anywhere, especially in a metropolis like Manila. We need to look into not just law enforcement but also barangay drug clearing. This is of course an effort with the local government unit and other concerned sectors,” he said. 

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos said a total of 19,568 “homicide” cases were recorded since the start of the drug war, 2,235 of them drug-related.  

Carlos said the PNP has conducted 64,506 police anti-drug operations, which resulted in the arrest of 102,069 drug personalities. A total of 42,182 cases have been filed before the court, 21,908 others were referred to the prosecution office, while 416 cases are under investigation. 

Of the drug-related incidents, 403 have been resolved, Carlos claimed. 

Undersecretary Reynante Orceo said the Department of Justice has received a total of 96,943 complaints from July 2016 to September 2017. Of this, 95,242 have been disposed, filed in court or dismissed.

Carreon said the PDEA has conducted 81,919 anti-drug operations and has arrested 119,361 drug personalities.

A total of 3,987 drug personalities died during anti-drug operations while a total of 2,577.05 kilograms of methamphetamine or shabu, with a street value of P13.24 billion have been seized.

The PDEA has also confiscated dangerous drugs, controlled precursors, essential chemicals and laboratory equipment worth P19.34 billion.

“We have likewise arrested 446 government workers during anti-drug operations. This is broken down into 189 elected officials, 44 uniformed personnel and 213 government employees,” Carreon said.  

The operations also resulted in the death of 87 law enforcers, the rescue of 589 minors and the dismantling of 174 drug dens and nine clandestine shabu laboratories.

PNP chief Director General Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa said submitting to the Supreme Court (SC) police reports of their operations where suspected drug offenders were killed will endanger the lives of police officers. – With Emmanuel Tupas