CATBALOGAN CITY -- As far as the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Eastern Visayas is concerned, a total of 370 barangays in the region have been declared "free" from illegal drugs.
Eastern Visayas Police Director Elmer Beltejar said in a statement Wednesday, January 11, that since the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte started its Barangay Drug Clearing Operations on October 2016, at least 18 percent of the villages in the region have been considered “drug-free.”
Eastern Visayas has a total of 4,390 villages, and 2,474 are drug-affected, said Beltejar, while more than 2,000 villages are still subject for cleansing in the next months.
He hinted that all barangays in the region underwent rigorous evaluation down to the grassroots in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (Badacs).
The PRO hopes to declare more municipalities or barangays as drug-free this 2017 with the continuous implementation of Project Double Barrel-Alpha, said Beltejar.
According to police, a barangay is considered “drug-free” if there is already non-supply of drugs, absence of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) warehouses, shipment activities, marijuana cultivation, absence of drug den, pushers, users, financiers and protectors, and any similar crime activities traceable to illegal drugs.
Beltejar considered the anti-drug campaign in Eastern Visayas “successful,” with the drug supply in the region cut by as much as 90 percent since the implementation of Project Double Barrel-Alpha.
He encouraged the local government units and the public to help the government in cleansing their respective villages to have a better community to live in. (SunStar Philippines)