PDEA forms group to supervise barangay-level drug clearing program

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday said it created a working group tasked to oversee and assist in the drug clearing program at the barangay level.

PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva said the PDEA Barangay Drug Clearing Program Working Group for Monitoring and Validation (PB-WMV) will ensure faster processing and validation of data for the village-level drug reduction program.

“Once the PB-WMV becomes fully operational, the correctness of data on drug-cleared barangays and watch-listed drug personalities will be achieved. The working group will speed up the process for a faster, better, and more effective execution of the BDCP (Barangay Drug Clearing Program),” Villanueva said in a statement.

To recall, the government’s barangay-level drug-free program allows law enforcement agencies to focus on supply reductions while local government units focus on preventing the demand for illegal drugs in their respective localities.

Aside from monitoring the implementation of the barangay-level drug clearing program, the PB-WMV will also “validate drug-cleared status of a village, gather data for drug-clearing, launch seminars or training, among others,” Villanueva also noted.

The PB-WMV is led by the PDEA director general while PDEA chief-of-staff will manage its implementation, according to Villanueva.

The working group’s members, meanwhile, are composed of  PDEA Offices and Services, Villanueva said.

KGA