THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Central Luzon is targeting to clear some 827 barangays in the region of illegal drugs.
This was learned from Gil T. Pabilona, regional director of PDEA in Region 3, who disclosed that about 2,400 villages in the whole Central Luzon region are affected by illegal drugs.
Pabilona said they are aiming for this accomplishment with the help of other law enforcement agencies like the Philippine National Police (PNP), local government units and barangay anti-drug abuse councils.
The regional PDEA office has so far cleared 118 out of the 308 drug-affected barangays in Pampanga, according to the official.
In Angeles City, only two out of the 31 drug-affected villages were cleared, Pabilona said.
"As I see it, the drug clearing is moving. It’s just that Angeles and its barangays are really big so the drug clearing is slow paced," he said during the Hues media forum of the Pampanga Press Club at the Park Inn By Radisson Clark last week.
For highly urbanized cities, Olongapo has the biggest number of drug-affected areas followed by Angeles City, according to Pabilona.
The PDEA regional office was able to clear 54 out of the 96 drug-affected barangays in Aurora, 35 out of 507 in Bulacan, 119 out of 709 in Nueva Ecija, 116 out of 118 in Bataan, 43 out of 185 in Zambales, 110 out of 392 in Tarlac, and one out of 16 in Olongapo City.
Pabilona was previously assigned as chief legal director of the PDEA head office in Manila and regional director of PDEA Western Visayas before he replaced former PDEA Central Luzon director Joseph Ladip.