CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela — Anti-drug agents, police and local leaders have lauded barangay officials as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) confirmed that 14 villages in this city are now drug-free.
Declared drug-free in a ceremony at the city community center here were the villages of Sta. Catalina, Minabang, Naguilian Norte, Mangcuram, Rang-ayan, San Pablo, Morado, Gayong-gayong Norte, Ballacong, San Ignacio, Salindingan, Capo, Carikkikan Norte, and Quimalabasa, according to PDEA-Cagayan Valley Regional Director Laurefel Gabales.
Gabales said villages are declared drug-cleared and drug-free once it is established that drug supplies are no longer available; drug den, pushers and users are not present; active involvement of barangay officials in anti-drug activities has been reported; drug awareness, preventive education and information drives are existing, as well as voluntary and compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation processing desks.
“This is the day that we had been waiting for—the declaration of barangays as drug-free as we strive to further unite and help each other in fighting illegal drugs in the city,” Ilagan City Mayor Evelyn Diaz said.
She said the illegal drug menace has remained a problem “so we have been working double time to declare all barangays in the city as drug-free.”
In San Guillermo town, Barangay Estrella and Barangay Villa Rose have been declared drug-cleared, the PDEA said. (Bill Visaya/PNA)
