CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The war versus illegal drugs is now down to the level of homeowners in the City of San Fernando.
Governor Lilia Pineda relayed this on Saturday to more than 700 members and of officers of the city’s Federation of Homeowners Association or FEDHOA during an anti-illegal drugs summit at Heroes Hall.
Some 82 of the city’s 104 recognized homeowners associations joined the governor in kicking off the campaign in their respective subdivisions and villages across San Fernando’s 35 barangays.
“It is here in this city, in your respective subdivisions, that we should level up our campaign against illegal drugs where we should save the users and jail the users,” Pineda said, recounting the more than P4-billion shabu haul in Greenville and Richtown subdivisions last month.
“You are not spared by the drug menace even if you have high fences or guarded gates. These pushers find their way into your subdivisions because they know you are well-off. We must get our acts together or else three things can happen: your children get killed, land in mental hospitals, or get jailed forever,” she said.
Pineda described the growing drug menace as leaping out of bounds, with the increasing number of crimes in the city attributed to drug users.
“During the time of former governors like Governor Mendoza and Governor Nepomuceno, there were only 50 inmates at our provincial jail. Now there are 1,020 whom we sustain with P1.4 million monthly for their food, aside from the P50 million renovation and expansion of the jail. Most of the inmates are there for drug pushing. Help us stop this as our provincial could not accommodate any more addicts and pushers. It’s time this stops,” she said.
The governor also proposed the crafting of an ordinance in which transients in subdivisions should be registered with the homeowners association and barangay with their suspicious activities if ever, monitored, as well as illegal drugs trade reported to authorities.
“We really need to work together to stop the proliferation of illegal drugs and save our children as well as make the City of San Fernando and Pampanga drug free,” said Pineda.
For their part, the FEDHOA led by Walter Ocampo, vowed to support the governor’s campaign and start policing their very own villages.