All WV villages have reactivated BADACs

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)’s “tokhang” against barangay (village) captains might not be needed in Western Visayas.

This, as PDEA-Region 6 reported that all 4,051 barangays in Western Visayas have established their Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (Badac).

Ma. Graziella Tanaleon, PDEA-6 spokesperson, said that the latest Department of the Interior and Local Government-Region 6 (DILG-6) order directed all villages in the region to reactivate and revitalize their respective BADAC.

“This means that they have submitted documentary requirements for the creation of BADAC,” she said.

They must also periodically submit their BADAC watchlist of drug personalities.

“There must also be monitoring of these drug personalities,” Tanaleon said.

Last week, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva warned of “tokhang” against barangay captains who had not established BADAC in their area.

Tokhang (from the words toktok or knock, and hangyo or ask) is the strategy used by police to visit and ask suspected drug peddlers and users to surrender. It has been synonymous to the crackdown on illegal drug syndicates and their protectors.

If village chiefs don’t have BADAC in their barangay, “then si kapitan tokhangin na natin,” Villanueva was quoted to have said.

In Western Visayas, Tanaleon said they generally have a good relationship with village officials.

“As far as their cooperation is concerned, we have not encountered any problem,” she said.

There has been no resistance from the community in the recent months after PDEA-6 carried out its operations and programs.

79.9 percent of barangays in Western Visayas now being “drug-cleared” is proof of that.

“They have been in full force in the government’s drug-clearing program,” Tanaleon said.

But she pointed out that the village officials’ role won’t stop after their areas are declared drug-cleared.

“There must be re-evaluation to ensure that their status would remain that way,” she said.

In the advent of the Duterte administration, the PNP in Western Visayas has already reported that almost all 4,051 barangays have created their respective BADAC.

At that time, though, the PNP noted that BADACs are not functioning as they should be.

Some of them are not submitting reports and doing activities relative to their BADAC functions relative to the Barangay Drug Clearing process, formation and operationalization.

A few years back, the PNP said that while BADAC formation is not an issue in Western Visayas, its functionality and regularity in submission of reports, particularly on the list of suspected drug personalities, is another thing.

Accordingly, it is mandatory that all barangays appropriate a portion of their annual budget to the BADAC. Otherwise, it will be a ground for possible filing of administrative case for Dereliction of Duty in pursuant to Section 60 of Local Government Code.

DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2015-63 called for the “Revitalization of the BADAC and their Role in the Drug Clearing Operation.”

Among BADAC’s powers and functions are to conduct regular meetings at least once a month and call for special meetings whenever necessary; plan, strategize, implement and evaluate programs and projects on drug abuse prevention in the barangay; and organize the BADAC Auxiliary Team to compose an ideal number of 25 members per 2000 population of the barangay representing streets, puroks, or subdivisions or sitios.

Part of the council’s functions is to continuously gather and update data on all drug related incidents and its effect on the peace and order situation in the barangay including listing of suspected drug users and pushers.