[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Drug-free stickers ‘way of shepherding, not shaming’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#0a0a0a’]
Saturday, February 25, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#0a0a0a’]
ILOILO City – Posting stickers indicating that a home is illegal drug-free is the government’s way of “shepherding,” according to Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary Ismael Sueno.
Sueno stressed that the activity is not aimed at “shaming” families not qualified to have such stickers for having a drug-dependent member.
“We are not shaming them…we are shepherding them,” the Interior secretary said during a consultation on the department’s campaign here. “We are not condemning them, but we are taking care of them.”
Prior to the consultation meeting with Regional Peace and Order Councils – Visayas cluster, Sueno visited the Police Regional Office 6 and presented the plan to the police force.
While still in line with the government’s war on drugs, the plan involving the posting of “drug-free home” stickers is a new, nonviolent approach focusing on the family, said the Cabinet member.
“Kon sa isa ka purok, there are 20 families, as shepherd of the flock, we will look first for the ‘healthy’ (drug-free) families,” Sueno said. “[If] makita naton 15 families are healthy, our plan is to put a sticker that reads it’s a ‘drug-free home.’ Ang lima ka nabilin nga families who are not qualified to have the sticker…indi sila qualified kay may drug addict pa sila.”
Unqualified families will be taken care of, he stressed. “We will concentrate on them…ipangabay naton, ihangyo naton. This is why we call this ‘Operation Hangyo.’ Hangyo means mangabay kami sa inyo. Indi naton pagpwersahon, hangyo lang…and this is what we call shepherding.”
Through this approach, the antidrug function shifts from the police to the Peace and Order Councils, where the police also belong, said Sueno.
Criticizing it as a violation of human rights, Amnesty International said the campaign shames the unqualified families.
Sueno refuted this and cited an initiative of former Manila City mayor Alfredo Lim that involved painting the houses of families with drug-dependent members red, which he said the group also criticized.
“Kami, wala kami gapinta pula sa balay nga may drug addicts. We are looking for homes that are drug-free. Ano ang problem dira,” the Ilonggo official recalled asking the group.
He blasted the Amnesty International, saying it should be called not a human rights group but an “international human wrong group.” “They always see wrong in what we do,” he told the press here.
Sueno also appealed to opposition lawmakers insisting the plan will violate human rights to “not always think as an opposition, looking for the wrong [things] that we do in this administration.”
“We appeal to you to act as patriotic leaders who are in the best position to suggest solutions to the problems our country is now [facing],” he said.
Sueno stressed the campaign is not yet final; hence, the nationwide consultations./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
