Number of drug-affected barangays in Bohol drops

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — New data from the Bohol Police Provincial Office showed that the number of drug-affected barangays in the province, after the so-called revalidation efforts, had dropped from 98.02 percent or 1,087 of the 1,109 barangays province-wide, to only 96.6 percent (1,071 barangays).

This data, covering July 1-September 21 period, were presented by the police during the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) meeting last week.

This also showed that only 38 barangays or 3.4 percent were not invaded yet by illegal drugs, particularly shabu, from 22 barangays in an earlier report.

The new data showed that there’s no single barangay categorized as “seriously affected.” Some 399 barangays from 534 are now classified as “slightly affected,” and 672 from 553 are “moderately affected.”

The towns with only one barangay “not drug affected” are. Alicia, Antequera, Carmen, Clarin, 24, Dagohoy, Duero, Getafe, Guindulman, Loay, Loboc, Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, and Tubigon.

The towns of Anda and Garcia-Hernandez had three unaffected barangays, Dimiao had two, Inabanga had seven, and Loon had 11, the report showed.

BPPO, headed by Director Senior Superintendent Felipe Natividad said the number of surrenderers rose from 31,726 to 31,928. Of these, 30,461 are self-confessed users and the rest were pushers.

During the same period, the BPPO recorded a total of 20 drug suspects killed in shootout with authorities, while 397 suspects were arrested during the 297 operations, either search warrant of buy-bust, resulting in the filing of 608 cases.

Law enforcers also seized a total of 747.41 grams of shabu with street value of P8.8 million from 256 pushers and 141 users, the report said.

The month of August posted the biggest haul with 371.94 grams of shabu, worth P4.38 million, fom 126 operations, resulting in the arrest of 165 suspects, killing of 10, and filing of 275 cases. (FREEMAN)