ABOUT 11 barangays in Bacolod City have been recommended to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Western Visayas to be declared “drug-cleared” barangays in the city.

Executive Assistant Samuel Montoyo, focal person of City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac), said yesterday that Cadac already recommended to Mayor Evelio Leonardia to include the 11 barangays to be declared as drug cleared barangays

He said on July 26, Mayor Leonardia also sent its letter of intent to PDEA-6 officer-in-charge Alex Tablate endorsing the lists of the 11 barangays to be part of the process to be declared as drug cleared barangays.

These are Barangays 4, 6 13, 15, 17, 18 23, 24, 41, Montevista and Pahanocoy.

Montoyo said they also sent a communication to the said 11 barangays to send their five representatives for a PDEA orientation on August 8 at the Annex Building in Bacolod Government Center.

“The village chiefs of the 11 barangays are required to attend the orientation as well as their barangay secretaries, the councilmen chairperson of the committee on peace and order, the chief of tanods, and the barangay encoder,” he said.

Expected to also attend the orientation are the president of Liga ng mga Barangay Councilor Lady Glez Gonzales-Pallen, the president of Sangguniang Kabataan Federation Councilor Ayesha Villaflor, chiefs of Police Stations 1, 2, and 4, jail warden of Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) Anti-Drug Enforcement Unit, City Health Office, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Cadac.

In 2018, of 61 barangays in Bacolod, only Barangay 5 has been declared drug cleared barangay.

Meanwhile, Montoyo said the construction of the drug rehabilitation center at Barangay Singcang-Airport is now on-going as well as the Balay Silangan in Barangay Alijis.

He said it’s part of the requirements of the inter-committee on anti-illegal drugs that the city should have a Balay Silangan and drug rehabilitation center.

Balay Silangan, the national drug reformation program, offers temporary refuge with the objection of reforming drug offenders into self-sufficient and law-abiding members of society.