Anti-drugs efforts raised after resurgence

April 21, 2018 Metro BLISTT

The Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (Badac) in the Cordillera Administrative Region are again stepping up the campaign against illegal drugs, following a spike in drug abuse incidence in the region, based on the latest report of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Cordillera.
PDEA-CAR said that based on its validation in March, drug-affected barangays in Cordillera swelled to 47, or by 587 percent, from the only eight barangays noted to be affected by drugs, based on its previous validation in August 2017.
PDEA-CAR regional director Edgar Apalla said capacity building activities are now being undertaken jointly by the Badac, PDEA, and Philippine National Police.
The tactic now, he said, is to bring the campaign to the first level, as in “to reinforce, re-inform, and restart” previous programs that had led to the “drug cleared” status of the barangays.
Following the validation of the different barangays in August 2017, there were only eight remaining drug-affected barangays — two in Benguet and six in Baguio.
But with the reports of a resurgence of illegal drug activities in about 66 barangays, a revalidation was conducted again on March 20. It turned out 40 barangays were found to be drug-affected again.
One of the eight drug-affected barangays in August 2017 was cleared, retaining seven.
This brings the total number of drug-affected barangays to 47 out of 1,176 barangays in all of Cordillera as of March 2018.
Apalla explained that most of the drug-affected areas are classified as “moderately affected”, or where there is a presence of one drug pusher.
He pointed out that in the case of Baguio and other parts of the region where resurgence was recorded, most of the arrested drug dealers were only “transient” pushers from other provinces, who come to the city to peddle their ware and were arrested in the region.
Baguio City had been tagged as a “transshipment point of illegal drugs to and from other provinces and regions in the north”. As such, the city’s intensified anti-drugs operations have led to arrests, which when assessed, made the barangay where the arrests were done qualify as “moderately affected”.
PDEA-Cordillera Plans and Operations chief Seymor Sanchez said at the Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Council (RLECC) meeting on Wednesday that the agency is using canines, deploying them in bus stations to “sniff illegal drugs”.
During the meeting, Sanchez revealed that “shabu” is brought to the city via rented public utility buses and other vehicles.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is brought to the other parts of the country via Baguio using buses and other public utilities from the source to the city and out to the market.
Sanchez said a total of 63 cases of violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Law of 2002 were filed by PDEA in court, adding the agency arrested 53 drug personalities.
Sanchez said the goal of the region is to sustain the “drug-cleared” and “drug unaffected” status of the barangays, as the agency continues to monitor the drug situation in the region.
The officer added the anti-drugs campaign in Cordillera had led to the seizure and destruction of P17,562,886 worth of illegal drugs from January to March this year and the arrest of 53 drug personalities. LIZA AGOOT, PNA / ABN