THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Davao Region (PDEA-Davao) will intensify its barangay clearing program as part of its law enforcement campaign against illegal drugs in the Davao Region.
“Nakikipag-coordinate tayo sa ating mga barangay officials to address ‘yong problem sa illegal drugs sa sarili nilang mga barangay, dahil naniniwala tayo na nandiyan sa barangay, alam nong nasa barangay kung sino yong mga tao sa kanilang paligid (We are coordinating with the barangay officials to address the problem of illegal drugs, because we believe that they know their people more),” Aileen Lovitos, Regional Director, PDEA Region 11 said in an interview with the Davao City Disaster Radio on June 24, 2022.
Lovitos said they have already “cleared” a majority of the barangays in Davao Region.
“We have a total of 1,162 barangays [in Davao Region], so makikita natin na as of May 31, 2022 (so as of May 31, 2022), we have a total cleared barangays 856 na po,” Lovitos said.
Lovitos said there are still barangays that need to be cleared and she emphasized that the barangay clearing program process is long and tedious.
“It is really long and tedious process, baka kasi nami-misinterpret ng iba na ang PDEA lang ang ngki-clear ng isang barangay, hindi po (some might misinterpret that its only PDEA clearing the barangay, no it’s not), the regional oversight committee is composed of barangay clearing is composed of agencies such as PDEA, PNP (Philippine National Police), DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government), DOH (Department of Health) and the Local Government Unit, kasama na diyan ang barangay (and the barangay is part of it),” Lovitos said.
Lovitos said they also conduct house-to-house visits to encourage suspected drug personalities to stop pushing and using illegal drugs.
“Sabi ng ating Director General, kung pwede nating himukin o hikayatin, i-invite na ihinto ang mga drug activities nila then enroll themselves d’yan sa community-based rehabilitation program sa barangay nila (Our Director General said that we should encourage them [drug personalities] or invite them to stop doing their drug activities and enroll themselves to the community-based rehabilitation program of their barangay),” Lovitos said.
Lovitos said with the community-based rehabilitation program they will be able to address the illegal drugs problem in the barangays, especially for residents who have mild affectation instead of sending them to a facility. KSD