BACOLOD CITY — Mayor Evelio Leonardia has assured the Philippine National Police (PNP) of the city’s strengthened campaign against illegal drugs in the barangays.
Leonardia stated this in a letter he submitted to Director General Ronald de la Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), during their meeting at the PNP headquarters last Friday.
The mayor said in a statement on Monday that he submitted to De la Rosa the accomplishment report of Bacolod in its anti-illegal drugs campaign.
Leonardia committed to the PNP chief that Bacolod “will endeavor to declare as drug-free as many of our barangays as soon as possible”.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 (Western Visayas) had earlier confirmed that as of February this year, out of the 61 barangays in Bacolod, 36 are moderately-affected by drugs while 25 are slightly-affected.
The mayor told De la Rosa that the focus of the city’s anti-drugs campaign is the barangays.
“We will chase drug pushers out of the barangays, rehabilitate drugs users, provide them knowledge and skills and livelihood so they can be productive members of the society again,” Leonardia said in his letter to the PNP chief.
“We will continuously educate our young about the menace of drugs, and our parents about responsible parenthood,” he added.
Leonardia also said that Bacolod would support the moves of the Department of Interior and Local Government and the PDEA in going after barangay officials, who are not doing their anti-drug abuse campaign seriously.
In his report to the PNP, the mayor mentioned the city’s accomplishment of the two pillars of the city’s anti-drug campaign -the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council and the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of Bacolod (CADAC), a people’s organization helping the city on its war against drugs.
The reports of the two bodies were submitted to the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
The mayor said one of the very first executive orders he issued when he again became the mayor in 2016 was the re-activation of the CADAC, re-aligning its composition, structures, and thrusts with that of ICAD.
Leonardia added that because Bacolod City is very cooperative in the serious conduct of the national government’s anti-drugs campaign, the Dangerous Drugs Board chose Bacolod as the venue of the Philippine celebration of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, 2017.
Last March 10, the ICAD chose Bacolod as one of the key cities to launch its town hall meeting called “Rehabinasyon,” a holistic approach in eliminating the country’s drug problems that puts a premium on the rehabilitation of drug surrenderers.(Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
