The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-6) said majority of the barangays in Western Visayas are already cleared of illegal drugs.
As of December this year, 74.52% or 3,018 out of 4,051 villages in the region were declared drug-free.
The province of Antique posted the highest number of drug-cleared barangays with 98. 31%, followed by Aklan, 90.83%; Iloilo province, 88.50%; Guimaras, 75. 51%; Capiz, 64.48%; Iloilo City, 33.89%; Negros Occidental, 28.29 percent; and Bacolod City, 13.12 percent.
“We have 25.48 percent more to clear in 2020,” said PDEA-6 Director Alex Tablate, who also chairs the Regional Oversight Committee (ROC).
During the 18th ROC meeting on Dec. 17, there were 313 barangays from 37 municipalities and cities in the region applied to be declared drug-free.
Out of the number, 142 barangays successfully passed the deliberation process and were subsequently declared as drug-cleared by the members of the ROC, which are composed of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Health (DOH), and local government units (LGUs).
A barangay is considered drug-free in the absence of illegal drugs supply, transit or transhipment activity, drug laboratory or clandestine chemical warehouse, marijuana cultivation site, drug den, drug pusher, user or dependent, and drug protector, coddler or financier.
Meanwhile, Tablate urged the barangays to exert more efforts to establish their own Balay Silangan facilities.
At present, the region has only four facilities.
Tablate is expecting that more will rise by the first quarter of 2020.IMT
