IN an attempt to remove some residents of Barangay Pasil, Cebu City from the drug watchlist and make the barangay drug cleared, the Cebu City Office on Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP) reopened the four-month Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation Program (CBDRP) in collaboration with the CCPO and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA 7).
However, several drug personalities in the area reportedly failed to attend the program, prompting the CCPO to implement its "Oplan Katok" in an attempt to convince them to be present in order to be taken off the drug list.
Based on the records from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA 7) and the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), there were 279 drug dependents in Pasil who turned themselves in and acknowledged using illegal substances.
Twenty-eight of them graduated from the Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation Program (CBDRP) organized by the Cebu City Office on Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP), under the direction of Jona John Rodriguez, while 38 were arrested during anti-illegal drug operations, 28 have perished and 111 could not be located by the authorities on suspicions that they had either moved to another place or died.
COSAP head Jona John Rodriguez said the rehabilitation program will help the attendees return to their normal lives.
Rodriguez stated that the barangay might be deemed drug-cleared if all of their targets showed up for the CBDRP.
He explained that those who have completed the rehabilitation program will be monitored to ensure that they do not return to their vices.
"Kung mahuman nani sila sa program every now and then monitoron ni sila, ipa drug test kung wala ba sila mobalik sa ilang bisyo," Rodriguez said.
(After completing the program, they will undergo periodic monitoring and a drug test to make sure they haven't gone back to their vices).
The Cebu City official admitted that Barangay Pasil is a big challenge for them due to the area's serious illegal drug problem.
Police Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, the chief of CCPO, praised the initiative saying this will help reduce the demand for illegal substances.
Dalogdog acknowledged that even though the Police Regional Office (PRO 7) is now leading the Philippines in supply reduction due to the large number of illegal narcotics that have been confiscated, they still need to reduce the drug demand.
It can be recalled that there are already 25 barangays in Cebu City that have been declared drug cleared after the drug personalities in these areas attended the CBDRP.
These include Santo Niño, Sudlon 1, Basak Pardo, Sinsin, Toong, Parian, Sudlon 2, Buot, Sapangdaku, Pamutan, San Antonio, Lusaran, Kinasang-an, Adlaon, Kamagayan, Agsungot, Balubihan, Binaliw, Punta, Budlaan, Tabunan, Kasambagan, Mabini, Cambinocot and Zapatera. (AYB, TPT)