The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Negros Occidental is optimistic that more villages will be declared free from the proliferation of illegal drugs by the end of this year.
PDEA-Negros Occidental head Nicolas Gomez said yesterday that 157 barangays in the province were declared drug-cleared from January 2020 to present.
The number is about 30 percent of the total 601 barangays in 31 cities and municipalities of the province, Gomez added.
Gomez said the recent deliberation of the Regional Oversight Committee on Dangerous Drugs (ROCDD) chaired by Regional Director Edgar Apalla held in Bacolod on October 9, resulted in the clearing of 23 barangays out of the 53 candidate villages.
The ROCDD cleared three villages each in the towns of Candoni and Isabela, two each in the cities of Himamaylan, Sagay, and Victorias, and the towns of Ilog, La Castellana, and Pontevedra, and one each in the towns of Valladolid and San Enrique and cities of Silay, Talisay, and Sipalay, Gomez said.
Representatives from the different barangays assisted by their local government units (LGUs) presented and defended their applications and folders in compliance with the parameters of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program mandated by Dangerous Drug Board (DDB) Reg. 3 series of 2017.
Gomez said there is still a need to clear more than 60 percent of the total number of villages in the province.
He said there are three deliberations left this year for drug clearing, but he is not sure if they can reach 50 percent by the end of the year since some barangays also focus on the prevention of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Although they have no target, Gomez said they are hoping that more villages will not suffer because of the presence of drug personalities and illegal drugs.
He said that villages that failed to be cleared will automatically be qualified for the next deliberation tentatively scheduled on October 21 or 26.
He said drug-cleared barangays are being monitored and re-evaluated to determine if they have sustained their status, or else their certificates will be revoked.
Meanwhile, Gomez also said that Bacolod has 10 drug-cleared villages out of the 61 total number of barangays here.
He said that 12 barangays applied during the recent deliberation but none of them passed the evaluation. (Glazyl Masculino via The Daily Guardian (TDG), photo by TDG)