MORE than 180 barangays in Cebu Province that had been declared as “drug-cleared” communities will be assessed to confirm if their incumbent officials were replaced during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections last week.
The Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) is conducting assessments so they can proceed with training the new chiefs, if there are any in the 185 barangays, in managing their Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils.
Carmen Remedios “Ivy” Durano-Meca, CPADAO executive director, told SunStar Cebu that following the elections last week, her office’s biggest concern is what could happen to the Community-Based Treatment Program (CBTP) in the drug-cleared villages.
Meca said the village chiefs of the 185 drug-cleared barangays had appointed individuals who were trained by CPADAO to oversee the barangay’s treatment program.
The CBTP is also one of the 14 requirements in the Barangay Drug Clearing Program that a barangay has to prove before they are declared as drug-cleared.
After the elections last May 14, Meca said that if there was a change of leadership, this “will mean that we will have to retrain interventionists, which will take time, and this could affect the barangay’s drug-cleared status,” Meca said. (JKV)