BAGUIO CITY — Mountain Province remains to be drug-free, authorities said Thursday.
“Mountain Province is still and remains to be a drug cleared province as of now,” Senior Supt. Allen Ocden said in an interview on Thursday.
Ocden was thankful to the residents for helping provide the police information from the communities.
“We are able to sustain our status because of the community-based reporting system that we are implementing, where the members of the community provide us with the information which is verified,” he said.
But he warned: “Those who insist on peddling drugs in Mountain Province. I warn them, don’t cross my path. If you do so, ask for God’s mercy because I don’t have mercy, when it comes to drugs here in Mountain Province. I hate peddling drugs in Mountain Province.”
Ocden said aside from the community’s support, the local government unit’s (LGU) participation is also material in the maintenance of the province’s status as a drug-cleared place.
He cited the continuing rehabilitation of the drug surrenderers through a community-based program also supported by the churches.
The police officer also mentioned the “matago program”, where local governments without community-based drug rehabilitation programs are backed by the other LGUs , churches, and non-government organizations.
He added the activities and collaboration with the police of the Barangay Anti Drug Abuse Councils (BADACs) and the municipal anti-drug abuse councils (MADACs) are also helping the government’s anti-drugs efforts.
MADACs and BADACs hold talks, lectures, and dialogues with different sectors, informing them about the government’s campaign to fight the illegal drug trade in the province.
Tadian Mayor Anthony Wooden, who is also the president of the league of mayors in the province, said in an interview in Bontoc earlier this week also expressed joy over Mountain Province’s keeping the drug-free status.
“We will do our best so that our place will not have an illegal drugs problem,” Wooden said, adding cultivation of marijuana is not at all an issue in Mountain Province. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
