CALASIAO—Alaminos has been declared as the first drug-free city in the province.

     This was the assessment of the Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Coordinating Council (PADACC) with Vice Governor Oscar Lambino as executive officer, based on its evaluation.

     Mayor Hernani Braganza received the award for his city from the PADACC during a program held Monday as part of the observance of the Anti-Drug Abuse Prevention Week. The award was presented by Lambino and P/Sr. Supt. Alan Purisma, Pangasinan provincial director and PADACC vice chairman.

     Braganza gave credit to the collective efforts of the city police, the 106th Police Mobile Group, the prosecutors’ office, the judiciary and the community of Alaminos for making their city drug-free.

     The mayor also earned the praise of PADACC for establishing the first and so far only local government drug rehabilitation center in Pangasinan. 

     Regional Trial Court Judge Jules Mejia of Branch 54 cited Mayor Braganza and the police for arresting a woman, tagged as the ‘shabu’ queen of western Pangasinan, whom he later convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. 

     Lambino, at a breakfast news conference here Tuesday, said Alaminos should serve as the model for the whole of Pangasinan if not the entire Ilocos region.

     “If all other towns and cities, particularly Urdaneta and Dagupan, follow the example set by Alaminos, our victory in the campaign against prohibited drugs will not be long,” he said.

     According to the vice governor, per PADACC’s list, Urdaneta and Dagupan remain a hotbed for distribution and sale of illegal drugs.

     He said while the government has already made a lot of headway in its campaign against illegal drugs, more need to be done especially in terms of information and education drive. 

     In Urdaneta City, Police Regional Director Leopoldo Bataoil said he aims to make Region I drug-free but did not mention any time frame as to when he wants it realized.

     Saying that the campaign against illegal drug is the centerpiece of his administration as new police regional director, Bataoil, on his first day, had ordered an intensive manhunt against those responsible for establishing a mobile shabu laboratory in Burgos.

     The manhunt for the suspects is still ongoing but following this, four agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency from the Cordillera were arrested.

Bataoil also ordered a composite team from the police to raid marijuana plantations in the tri-boundaries of La Union, Ilocos Sur and Benguet  where lawmen seized 10,000 fully-grown marijuana plants believed tilled by rebels.—LM

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