PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) oversight committee is expected to declare three municipalities in Palawan as “drug-cleared,” a ranking provincial police official said Thursday.
Palawan Provincial Police Office (PPO) Chief Inspector Salvador Tabi of the Police Strategy Management Unit (PSMU) said these are the northern provincial towns of Busuanga, Linapacan, and Dumaran.
“These three towns were included in the revalidation process that was conducted last June 16 by the PDEA oversight committee. We have endorsed them to be declared drug-cleared,” he said.
Aside from the municipalities, 29 barangays distributed in other municipalities have also been recommended for validation to be declared drug-cleared.
These are three in Aborlan, one in Bataraza, four in Brooke’s Point, six in Quezon, one in Narra, and one in Rizal, in southern Palawan. In the northern part, the barangays for proposed validation are one in Cuyo, one in Dumaran, one in San Vicente, two in Linapacan, and one in Taytay.
Tabi added that earlier, the municipalities of Cagayancillo and Kalayaan were already declared “drug-free,” but the PDEA had to withdraw the affirmation of the latter because an employee of the municipality turned positive for drugs.
“Last Saturday, PDEA was here. Before this validation, two towns had been confirmed drug-free. But the declaration of Kalayaan was canceled because when a drug test was conducted by the municipal government, one employee came out positive for using illegal drugs,” he said.
The municipalities of Araceli and Magsaysay, also in northern Palawan, had been declared drug-cleared by the PDEA oversight committee earlier, according to him.
Chief Superintendent Juan Calaluan, deputy director for Administration of the PPO, explained the process to declare any barangay, city, town, or province as drug-cleared and drug-free is long and thorough as it involves 14 factors.
The clearing of barangays alone, he added, involves three phases: pre-operation, operation, and post-operation.
“There is an oversight committee that does this in PDEA. Drug clearing operations are difficult and have three phases, and when declared, efforts to maintain the clearance have to be continuous. After the three have been done, that’s the only time the PDEA will make the declaration,” he said. (PNA)
