ILOILO City – Fifty villages in Western Visayas are seeking to be declared as drug-free areas.
Their applications will be deliberated on April 27 by the Regional Oversight Committee on Dangerous Drugs.
Nineteen villages in Iloilo province are applying; 17 in Negros Occidental; 10 in Capiz; and four in Aklan, according to Shey Tanaleon, spokesperson of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The Oversight Committee consists of PDEA being the head, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Health (DOH), and local government units.
Once the applicants are declared drug-free, a certification will be issued by the Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug-Clearing Program.
“To be declared as drug-cleared, the applicants must have completed the requirements. Once they pass, they have to maintain their status because we have a revalidation. If they fail, they will go back to zero and apply again,” explained Tanaleon.
Before declaring a barangay free from illegal drug activities, the committee must convene and validate the non-availability of drug supply in the area and the absence of drug transit activity, clandestine drug laboratory, and chemical warehouse, marijuana cultivation site, drug den, drug pusher, and user.
A total of 3,332 barangays in Western Visayas have so far been declared free from drugs out of the region’s 4,051 villages.
“We hope that this coming validation, more barangays will be cleared. The barangay officials and the community play a big role in our fight against illegal drugs,” Tanaleon said./PN
