“WE are not going back to zero”.

This was stressed by P/Lt. Colonel Norman Florentino, chief of the Police-Community Affairs Office of the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO), referring to Dagupan City whose 31 barangays, according PDEA, have yet to be drug-cleared.

Florentino told the KBP Forum last Thursday, Aug. 8, that the almost all the barangays of Dagupan were already drug-cleared by the police and all the documents pertaining to these were sent to the Regional Oversight Committee.

But before the committee could validate the status of Dagupan’s barangays, new parameters in drug-clearing process were introduced and these need to be complied with, Florentino added.

Unlike other towns and cities that were already cleared earlier Dagupan’s fate was overtaken by the new guidelines set by PDEA for drug-clearing, Florentino admitted.

P/Lt. Colonel Abubakar Mangelen Jr., chief of police of Dagupan, revealed that when he began his term, Mayor Brian Lim noted that none of the 31 barangay of Dagupan has been drug-cleared.

But that when he compared notes with his counterpart in the PDEA, he learned that folders of the city were, indeed, submitted to the Regional Oversight Committee purposely for declaration of Dagupan as drug-cleared.

“We are in the process of fulfilling all the new requirements,” said Mangelen who called for a Barangay Drug Clearing Summit last week attended by all barangay chairmen to discuss the need to comply with the new requirements of PDEA in the short term.

Mangelen confirmed that PNP, PDEA and other laws-enforcement agencies were holding separate lists of drug personalities, but these have been reconciled to form a single list.

Florentino said one of the new parameters is to establish the whereabouts of a newly identified drug personality in the barangays if he/she cannot be located at his residence.

Asked when the process can be finally completed, Florentino said, “very soon.” (Leonardo Micua)  

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