BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – The Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) hopes to clear a maximum of eight drug-affected barangays before this year is over.
ICPO director, Senior Superintendent Ruperto Floro said the goal is achievable if his police chiefs and their men would “do their share.”
“Nothing is impossible. We can make it if the community, government officials and agencies would work hand in hand with us, with the help of the media,” he said.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional director Paul Ledesma confirmed that so far, no drug-affected barangay in the city has been cleared.
“We are coordinating with the ICPO to help them,” said Ledesma.
Ledesma lamented that some village officials remain uncooperative with the police and PDEA in the campaign against illegal drugs.
Barangays should be the people’s first defense against illegal drugs, he stressed.
But he also acknowledged that drug traffickers have found barangays easy targets of their operations, most especially if they have co-opted the village leaders.
Recent PDEA arrests confirmed that illegal drugs have permeated barangays and in several instances, even village officials were themselves involved in the trafficking.
The regional director also reminded Ilonggos that no drug traffickers will prosper if people won’t allow themselves to be used.
The strategy is to constrict or deny the traffickers of markets to do business. They will pack up and leave if they know people are interested in what they are peddling, Ledesma explained.
The key is community support most especially in the barangays, according to the PDEA-6 chief.
Ledesma reminded barangay captains of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Memorandum Circular 2009-09 that called for a unified action against dangerous drugs among local government unit officials.
Among others, barangay officials are enjoined to provide PDEA and the police with information about illegal drugs in their respective turfs./PN
