DATU ABDULLA SANGKI, Maguindanao – Five of the 10 villages here have been declared by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as drug-free barangays, anti-narcotics officials said.
Juvenal Azurin, PDEA director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM), made the announcement during the town’s peace and order council meeting on Friday.
“We have cleared five barangays. Soon we will let you know whether the five other barangays here will be cleared too or not,” Azurin told the MPOC assembly participants, headed by Mayor Bai Mariam Sangki Mangudadatu.
Azuzin also urged the village heads of the remaining five barangays to activate their respective barangay anti-drug advisory councils (BADAC) to help PDEA clear the communities of illegal drugs and drug personalities.
Lt. Col. Lauro Oliveros, Army’s 1st Mechanized Battalion commander, who was also present during the MPOC, vowed to help PDEA in the campaign against illegal drugs in Datu Abdulla Sangki and other towns under its military jurisdiction.
Azurin identiied the cleared barangays as Kaya-Kaya, Mao, Talisawa, Guinibon, and Sugadol. Still undergoing PDEA assessment are the villages of Banaba, Dimampao, Maranding, Old Maganoy, and Tukanalugong.
During the meeting, the recent skirmishes involving Moro rebels were also discussed.
The armed conflict between factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has led to the displacement of about a hundred families. The displaced families told MPOC officials that many of them have lost the work animals they left behind when the armed hostilities erupted last week.
“Normalcy has been restored and the evacuees have returned home,” Mangudadatu reported to the council. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
