10 barangays risk of losing “drug-free” tag

CEBU, Philippines — At least 10 of the 245 barangays that have been previously declared free of drugs are now at risk of losing its “drug-cleared” status.

Cebu Provincial Anti-drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) Chief Ivy Durano-Meca said these barangays have concerns in neutralizing the users who surrendered in their area.

She said some of these barangays were not able to produce graduates from their drug surrenderers from the time the community based treatment program was launched.

“Ang ubang mga barangay igo ra naka-launch og community based rehabilitation program, pero wala gyud maka-implement,” Meca said.

She further said that other barangays started from scratch after the previous barangay officials failed to turn over their work to the newly elected barangay officials, thus, the Barangay Anti-drug Abuse Council (BADAC) need to start all over again.

The 245 barangays have been monitored by the technical working group of the oversight committee to ensure that they will maintain their drug-cleared status.

The technical working group is composed of the Philippine National Police through the Cebu Provincial Police Office, Department of Health, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Department of Interior and Local Government and the Cebu provincial government.

Meca did not divulge the names of the barangays and from what town or city, but said they will be sending to the local chief executives of these barangays their monitoring result this week.

“We will send them the monitoring report and we will give them one week to take action on all the findings and recommendations prior to making a decision if it will be recommended for revocation or not,” Meca said.

Next week the technical working group will deliberate and discuss their findings on the status of the barangays.

The oversight committee headed by the PDEA will be the one to decide whether or not to revoke the drug-cleared status of the 10 barangays. — GAN (FREEMAN)