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Wednesday, June 25, 2003
City Hall goes after drug users
By Ronilo Ladrido Pamonag
THE Iloilo City Government is training its guns on drug users in schools and barangays as part of its campaign for a drug-free city.
Mayor Jerry Treņas said the program of the Iloilo City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Icadac) is geared towards the reduction of drug users as the police is cracking down on drug pushers and suppliers.
"The concern of Icadac is demand reduction. The police will take care of supply reduction. They will go on with their buy-bust operations, apprehensions of drug pushers, identification of pushers," he said.
Treņas, together with Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas, had earlier took up the challenge of Interior and Local Government Sec. Jose Lina to make Iloilo drug-free as soon as possible.
The mayor said that on a scale of 1 to 10, the city's drug problem is already halfway at 5.
"It is already halfway but the police are not taking the drug problem sitting down," he said.
During Lina's visit to the city Monday morning, he said that the campaign against illegal drugs must be two-pronged -reduction in both the supply and the demand.
Moreover, Treņas said the city's program calls for the formation of a Speaker's Bureau, which will organize advocacy and fora in schools and in the barangays.
Fora on the ill-effects of drugs will be organized in private and public elementary, secondary and tertiary schools.
Citing intelligence reports, Treņas said that drug pushing has already reached the campuses with the buying and the selling already taking place inside the schools.
"Plainclothes men will be positioned outside the schools so they can guard (against the entry of illegal drugs)," he said.
Similar talks will also be held in the barangays through the Sangguniang Kabataan and the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (Badacs).
The City will push for the formation of Badacs to help the Icadac, Treņas said.
In the wake of the government's renewed campaign against narcotics, the mayor convened the Icadac last week to draft an anti-drug program.
To further strengthen the campaign and coordinate efforts against narcotics, some members of the Icadac are suggesting that representatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) be included in their set-up.
(June 25, 2003 issue)
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