THE Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Padac) of Mountain Province was cited as one of the best in the country.
Mountain Province scored a rating of 100 percent and the only province in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in the list.
The rating was categorized as ideal by the National Audit Team led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), with other members of the team representing the Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and civil society organizations which aims to rate the 81 provincial, 145 city and 1,489 municipal anti-drug abuse councils in the country.
The rating of each anti - drug abuse council (ADAC) is based on the organized local ADAC; conduct of quarterly meetings; allocation of funds for the implementation of anti-drug activities as indicated in the Peace and Order and Public Safety Plan; implementation of plan and programs; support for component ADACs; and innovation.
Mountain Province got perfect scores in all these areas with perfect functionality point score which qualified the province for the award.
The award was received by Mountain Province Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr., DILG – MP provincial director Anthony Ballug, PADAC Focal Person Angel Baybay and PIO Novy Afidchao in Metro Manila recently with DILG Secretary Eduardo Año and Dangerous Drugs Board Secretary Catalino Uy personally handing over award.
Aside from Mountain Province, the municipalities of Tineg (Abra), Bauko (Mountain Province and Barlig (Mountain Province) also were given the same citation for an ideal ADAC.
Last month, the Provincial Accounting Office was adjudged as one of the best performing provincial accounting offices, aside from its Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) which likewise honored as the second best in the country during the national awarding activity held earlier this month.
Lacwasan lauded the employees of the Provincial Government for effectively managing their respective offices even in his absence to attend to other management and administrative activities of the Province.
“This only emphasizes the professionalism of provincial employees and proves that we are now working as a team. I just hope and pray that we could sustain what we started,” Lacwasan said.