It’s all systems go for the conduct of a three-batch village assembly on capability enhancement and drug-clearing operations tentatively scheduled for March 4 to 9, this year.

Dr. Elmeir Jade Apolinario, who heads the secretariat of the Zamboanga City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (ZCADAC), said the first batch of the assembly is set for March 4 to 5, second batch is March 6 to 7, and third batch on March 8 to 9.

Apolinario, the head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO), saie the venue for the series of activities will be announced later.

Per instruction of Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, Apolinario said the assembly aims to gather all village officials and other stakeholders to undergo capability training on drug-clearing operations, saying that the city’s anti-abuse fund is now P10 million and ready for use.

Salazar on Monday convened the ZCADAC meeting during which she instructed Apolinario to ensure compliance of DILG requirements on anti-drug campaign, particularly the community-based rehabilitation program, the establishment of “Bahay Silangan” for drug pushers and “Batak Solvent”.

“We want something concrete on these campaigns, hopefully within the first quarter of this year. We hope we will be able to address these because these are the gaps that we have,” Salazar said.

For his part, Apolinario said the modules on capability enhancement have already been prepared with tentative schedules by three batches. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)