‘Drug mapping’ eyed in Region 7

CEBU, Philippines — To help address the problem on illegal drugs, the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Central Visayas will implement a “drug mapping” strategy.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 director, said the strategy basically involves close monitoring of barangays identified as illegal drug hotspots.

“Because we have this identified barangays that are slightly affected, moderately affected and severely affected, we want to see that in a map for us to know where to augment and detail forces,” he said.

He directed all provincial and city directors to come up with a concrete plan on how to carry out the drug mapping.

Brotherhood System

Moreover, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has vowed to help the region in eradicating drugs.

Police Major General Debold Sinas, NCRPO director and former PRO-7 director, said his office will coordinate and partner with the regional office.

The coordination, he said, is part of the police’s brotherhood system.

He said NCRPO and PRO will help each other in hunting down wanted drug traffickers and in strengthening intelligence monitoring.

“During my stint as PRO-7 director, we had difficulty tracing and arresting personalities wanted for illegal drugs. Some of them went to National Capital Region (NRC) to elude arrest. But we had limited access to NCR,” he said.

With the partnership, Sinas said, it will widen the access of both offices in terms of monitoring and arrest, among others.

Ferro, for his part, welcomed the new development, saying it is an efficient way of addressing the drug proliferation problem.

“We are introducing this kind of brotherhood system where the PRO-7 will support another office by giving intelligence information and by giving other support training and guidance,” he said.

The brotherhood system, he said, will be of big help to PRO-7.

“This is a closer collaboration and cooperation among the police regional offices,” he said.  KQD (FREEMAN)