Barangay Taptap vies to be Cebu City’s 1st drug-free village

Senior Supt. Joel Doria (left), the chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

CEBU CITY — The mountain village of Taptap may become the first barangay declared “drug-free” in Cebu City.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said village officials of Taptap have been processing the requirements so the barangay could be declared free from the illegal substance.

Thirteen out of 80 barangays in Cebu City no longer have drug personalities on the watch list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) but have not complied with all the parameters to be officially declared “drug-free,” he said.

“We’re careful in declaring drug-free barangays. It is easy to do declare but we have to make sure that there are really no traces of illegal drugs,” Doria said.

At least 81 barangays in the province of Cebu were recently declared as “drug-free” by the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO).

According to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Regulation 2,  which provides the guidelines for the drug-clearing operations in the barangays, an area can be considered drug-clear in the absence of the following: drug supply or drug transit/transshipment activities; drug laboratories and warehouses, chemical warehouses; marijuana cultivation sites; drug dens; users and pushers; and drug protectors, coddlers, and financiers.

A drug-cleared barangay must have barangay officers who are active in various anti-illegal drug activities such as a drug awareness and preventive campaign.

It should also have a voluntary and compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation processing desk.

Aside from the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC), both the local police station chiefs and the PDEA shall issue certifications to prove that a locality is free from illegal drugs.

“Even if a barangay is declared drug-free, our monitoring will continue,” Doria said.  SFM/rga