Campaign shifts to high gear
ANTI-ILLEGAL DRUGS WAR
LINGAYEN—The provincial campaign contra illegal drugs shifts to high gear after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reported that shabu now sells the lowest in Pangasinan compared to other provinces in the region.
“We really have a big problem,” Gov. Amado Espino Jr. intoned during the joint Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) and the Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (PADAC) which he both heads.
P/Supt. Benjamin Ariola, chief of the operations and plans of the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office, confirmed that the price of illegal drugs in Pangasinan range from P2,500-3,000, a level cheaper than other provinces in the region.
According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 1, the province is a major transhipment point for shabu from the National Capital Region and Cavite while the marijuana is reportedly coming from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
He said he will ask the provincial board to compel all local government units (LGUs) in Pangasinan to allot from one to 0.5 percent of their annual budgets to be used for the campaign to eliminate illegal drugs in their communities which, he said, is actually provided for in the Dangerous Drugs Act which he co-authored in Congress.
Espino said he will ask the provincial board led by Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim not to approve annual budgets submitted by municipalities and cities for review if these do not contain funding to be used in fighting drug abuse.
He said the provincial government has set aside 1.5 percent of the province’s annual budget in fighting drug abuse, which is provided by law and the cities are is expected to also set aside the same.
He said cities should also set aside 1.5% while big towns should set aside 1% and small towns, 0.5 %.
He pointed out that the allocated funds should go to Municipal or City Drug Abuse Councils headed by mayors, the policy-making bodies while the police implements the policies.
The governor said the police need funding in the campaign against illegal drugs.
“We also have a problem when parents and siblings are no longer reporting to the police a member of their family is hooked into drugs,” Espino said.
Espino, one of the authors of the Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act when he was still a congressman, vowed an intensified campaign against illegal drugs with the active involvement of LGUs.
The provincial government earlier organized and hosted the Pangasinan Anti-Illegal Drugs Summit.
Board Member and Liga ng mga Barangay (LNB) provincial president Amado ‘Pogi’ Espino III authored a provincial resolution organizing and reactivating the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC) in all 1,333 barangays in the province.
The governor said he will also ask PDEA to identify the suspected organized groups operating in Pangasinan since the police noted the seeming endless supply of shabu in Pangasinan even after arresting many drug personalities and users.
PDEA Assistant Regional Director Edgar Apalla said there is still no known clandestine drug laboratory in Pangasinan and the regular drug supply is being sourced from Metro Manila and Cavite.
At the same, time, the governor said he wants answers from responsible agencies why and how the illegal drugs seized by lawmen from a policeman in Bayambang suspected as drug pusher turned out to be “tawas” when subjected to examination by the PNP Crime Laboratory.
That policeman is now off-the-hook after the crime laboratory confirmed that the substance supposedly seized from the policeman was not shabu. (Leonardo Micua/Johanne Macob)
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