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[av_heading heading=’Negros antidrug campaign shifting gears – PRO-18 ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLOD City – Helping villages become drug-free and scouring for drug personalities beyond residential areas will be included in the “expanded” Oplan Double Barrel.
“Oplan Double Barrel Alpha” will still focus on “neutralization of high-value targets and drug-clearing operations [in] barangays.”
But it will also feature initiatives on “how to make barangays drug-free,” said Chief Inspector Dianne Grace Catedral, PRO-18 spokesperson.
Business establishments, subdivisions, schools, government agencies, high-rise condominiums, shopping malls, and jails will now be covered by the search for drug personalities, too, said Catedral.
Police will also conduct an operation called “Taphang,” or “tatap-hangyô.”
Catedral said this involves engaging villagers in dialogues that will attempt to persuade them to avoid illegal drugs.
Representatives from government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and anti-drug abuse councils in barangays, municipalities or cities will be tapped as “resource speakers,” she said.
The PRO-18 may also seek help from former drug dependents, who may encourage users and/or pushers to surrender, said Catedral.
“The PNP (Philippine National Police) needs to enhance its antidrug strategies. We need to reinvigorate,” she stressed.
Cathedral said Double Barrel Alpha will be “good to go” once the PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa approves the memorandum on the program.
Yesterday the PRO-18 held an orientation-training on barangay drug-clearing operations with representatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Dangerous Drugs Board.
All chiefs of police across Negros Island Region attended.
Catedral called on Negrenses to report anyone engaged in the drug trade or using illegal drugs through mobile number 09188001965 or private message to the PRO-18’s Facebook page “Rpio Proeighteen.”
“The informants’ identity will be kept confidential,” she said. “OK lang kahit hindi na sila magbigay ng identity basta they can give information.”
Cathedral said the “war” against illegal drugs is a “shared responsibility between the community and the PNP.”
“It is very hard for the PNP to win the war against illegal drugs kung hindi kami tutulungan ng komunidad,” she stressed./PN
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