By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan | Philippine News Agency
MANILA – More than 24,000 barangays across the country have been cleared from illegal drugs since the start of the Duterte administration’s crackdown on illegal drugs in 2016.
Based on the latest Real Numbers data released by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Tuesday (Feb. 1), the number of barangays declared drug-free as of Dec. 31, 2021 reached 24,253 while a total of 11,175 barangays have yet to be cleared of illegal drugs.
PDEA spokesperson Derrick Carreon earlier said that before declaring that a barangay is free from illegal drug activities, the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs must validate the non-availability of drug supply, the absence of drug transit activity, clandestine drug laboratory and chemical warehouse, marijuana cultivation site, drug den, ,and drug pushers and users in the area.
Authorities also dismantled a total of 993 drug dens and 18 clandestine shabu laboratories from July 2016 to December 2021.
Various types of illegal drugs worth P75 billion were seized and this amount includes P63 billion worth of shabu.
A total of 14,240 high-value targets across the country were arrested since the anti-illegal drugs campaign was launched on July 1, 2016. Authorities also arrested 323,579 persons involved in illegal drugs during the period.
The consolidated reports as of Dec. 31 also showed 6,225 drug suspects have died during 224,215 anti-illegal drug operations. From July 2016 to December 2021, authorities also arrested 4,110 minors.
These rescued minors will be turned over after court proceedings to the Bahay Pag-asa centers of local government units within eight hours of police custody, before turning them over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development. (PNA) -ag
