Cortes vows fund for drive vs illegal drugs

CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes had promised to allocate funds to intensify the anti-illegal drugs operations of the Mandaue City Police Office.

Cortes, while ordering the police to address the illegal drugs problem in the city, said he will be setting aside an additional P10,000 every month to the MCPO headquarters and P5,000 additional budget monthly to each of the six police stations in the city for the purpose.

Earlier, the mayor announced that the city government will buy six patrol cars for the six police stations to help the policemen in fast response to crime incidents and increase police visibility.

MCPO's statistics showed that, for the past 11 weeks, a total of 49 drug pushing suspects were arrested and a total of 31 grams of shabu worth P376,000 were confiscated.

Last year, the six police stations of MCPO were able to conduct 155 operations against illegal drugs, arrested 216 drug personalities, and seized a total of 232 grams of shabu with a street value of P2.8 million.

The police said 27 barangays in the city are now affected by illegal drugs due to the presence of drug users and drug pushers. —RAE (FREEMAN)