CLARK FREEPORT—The Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) has directed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to publish a list of villages in Central Luzon where illegal drugs are sold and used as part of intensified efforts to stamp out the drug menace in the communities.
“We need to name the barangay (village), write the mayors, publish the list. These are the best ways to make sure that awareness of the problem gets to the public,” Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali told PDEA Regional Director Jeoffrey Tacio during a council meeting here on Monday.
“We need to make specific action plans for specific barangay, town and province,” said Umali, also the council chair.
Another list, but which should be available only to authorities, should contain names of suspected drug pushers in each barangay, he said.
Citing an example of the gravity of the problem, Umali said shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) was being sold right within Camp Tinio, the provincial police headquarters, in Cabanatuan City.
Tarlac Gov. Victor Yap said shabu was manufactured in the village where the mayor of Camiling town lives, adding that development efforts are set back by illegal drug problems.
In Pampanga, an Inquirer informant said a war between two drug syndicates since last year had led to extrajudicial killings.
Tacio said he would submit the list of drug-affected villages this week, but needed to validate the names of suspects furnished by the police with the agency.
With only 100 agents, he said PDEA conducted 2,896 operations, arrested 2,154 persons and seized 482.7 kilos of shabu in 2014.
A PDEA report in March showed that out of 3,102 villages in Central Luzon, two villages in Zambales were “seriously affected” by the illegal drugs problem, 977 villages were “moderately affected,” while 55 villages were “slightly affected.”
Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., former Philippine National Police chief, suggested to the RPOC to post the names and photographs of drug suspects in barangay halls so they would be drawn to clear their names.
Local governments should also provide incentives to villages that are successful in solving cases of drug abuse and trafficking, he said.
At Ebdane’s motion, the RPOC approved the provision of legal assistance to policemen and PDEA agents who are “harassed” by violators through the filing of cases.
“Let’s bring down the problem to the doorsteps of the barangay captains, mayors and private sector,” Umali urged.
Provincial and city prosecutors in Central Luzon approved the filing of 2,944 drug cases last year. At least 143 cases were dismissed for lack or mishandling of evidence or insufficient representation during inventories of confiscated substances, a report from the Department of Justice showed.