By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – About 84% of the villages in Western Visayas are cleared from illegal drugs.
This was reported by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-6 which led the Regional Oversight Committee on the Barangay Drug Clearing Program (ROC-BDC) in Iloilo City on August 27.
Four barangays hurdled the deliberation for a drug-cleared status, while 93 villages were able to retain their drug-cleared status, following a thorough assessment by the ROC.
The new drug-free villages were Barangay Ambilay of Panitan, Barangay Sto. Niño of President Roxas, and Barangay Amaga of Sigma, Capiz and Barangay Avila of Buenavista, Guimaras.
The 93 barangays that retained their drug-free status are in Altavas and Batan in Aklan, Lemery, Concepcion, Sta. Barbara and Mina in Iloilo Province; Sibunag, San Lorenzo and Nueva Valencia in Guimaras; Pandan and San Remigio in Antique; and Jamindan in Capiz.
They were able to comply with the parameters of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program mandated by Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Reg. 3 series of 2017, while the ROC members conducted actual evaluation of each participant barangay applicants.
The ROC-BDC is chaired by PDEA-6 director Alex Tablate and spearheaded by the Regional Barangay Drug Clearing Program Team (RBDCPT), with some members from the Police Regional Office (PRO)-6, Department of Health (DOH)-6, and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-6.
In a statement, PDEA-6 said that it will continue to closely collaborate with the concerned counterparts to increase the number of barangays to be cleared in the region.
