Guv reports initial gains
WAR VS ILLEGAL DRUGS
THE war vs. illegal drugs and the syndicates is on and the province’s chief executive is in the frontline directing the campaign.
Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr. said the campaign against illegal drugs in Pangasinan is now moving in high gear in all fronts, himself monitoring and supervising the campaign daily as chair of the Provincial Peace and Order Council (POC).
Speaking during a special edition of the KBP Forum last week, Espino admitted he may not be able to totally eradicate the problem before ending his term in 2016 since the drug problem is not a simple problem to solve, but he assured there will be significant gains by the time he leaves office.
Responding to a question from The PUNCH about his determination, Espino said he will see to it that his campaign against illegal drugs will have serious impact that will result in greatly reducing the problem.
The governor said he has been meeting with police officials and the Provincial Anti-illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (PAIDSTOG), about new plans and strategies that will put more teeth to the campaign.
Among the initial strategy is to secure the areas reported to be drug-free like the towns of Sto. Tomas, Bautista, and Alcala which have zero illegal drug incidents, and to sustain ongoing effective operations in other towns known to have bigger drug affectation.
Espino said he is satisfied with the work and the momentum so far that was started in January and promised to report more in detail in his State of the Province Address (SOPA) before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on February 16.
Meanwhile, the daily police blotters are reflecting successful operations against drug dealers in various towns that include personalities the drug watch list and notorious drug peddlers in communities.
Espino, however, conceded that much more need to be done in the face of reports from both the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the police that shabu in Pangasinan is the cheapest compared to the other provinces in the Ilocos region.
But he was elated to know that his call for cities and municipalities to set aside from 1.5 to 0.5 percent of their budgets to fund their campaign against illegal drugs has been heeded.
He said the commitment to provide more funds for the campaign indicates greater involvement of local officials down to the barangays.
The province, he said, has allocated additional 0.5 percent of its budget to be able to help small towns that cannot put up the fund required to finance their campaign against illegal drugs as required by the local government code, in addition to the 1.5 percent budget already allocated by the provincial board in 2015.
All municipal/city/ barangay drug abuse councils had already been activated through a resolution initiated in the provincial board by Board member and Liga ng mga Barangay Federation president Amado Espino III.
Meanwhile, Espino agreed to the suggestion of members of the POC that aside from three-times a day checkpoints conducted by the police in towns and cities to stop motorcycle-riding criminals (MRCs) there is a need for lawmen to strengthen their intelligence networks.
He said no MRCs have been arrested because previous plans to activate motorcycle-riding policemen were not sustained due to frequent changes in policies by rotating police O-I-Cs for the past three years.
He called on the national government to finally assign a permanent police director in Pangasinan. (Leonardo Micua)
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