18% of villages nationwide ‘drug-affected’–PDEA

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)

MANILA, Philippines—Over 7,000 villages in different parts of the country are “drug affected,” a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency official disclosed Friday.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr. said 7,372 villages (barangay), or 18 percent of the country’s total 42,025 villages have been affected by the drug menace, citing a consolidated report from PDEA and other partner drug law enforcement agencies.

“A barangay is said to be drug-affected when there is a determined existence of drug user, pusher, manufacturer, marijuana cultivator or other drug personality regardless of number in the area,” Cacdac said.

He said there were three parameters in determining the affectation of a certain village— slightly affected, moderately affected, and seriously affected.

He said a village was considered slightly affected if there were identified drug users in the community but no known drug pushers or traffickers operating in the area.

Moderately affected, on the other hand, was if at least one suspected drug trader was operating within the community; and seriously affected if at least one drug laboratory, den, dive, or resort was suspected to exist in the community.

Out of the drug-affected towns, 30.7 percent, or 2,265 villages have been classified as slightly affected; 61.6 percent, or 4,543 moderately affected; while the remaining 7.7 percent, or 564 barangay seriously affected.