Bonuan Binloc is drug source for Region1, Cordillera
DAGUPAN’S NOTORIETY
ARRESTED drug dealers have attested that Barangay Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan City is the main source of illegal drugs filtering into other parts of Pangasinan, other provinces in Region 1, and parts of the Cordilleras.
Director Jeoffrey Tacio of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 1 made this announcement, confirming a statement to the media the previous week by Secretary Antonio Villar Jr., chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), that based on a list he was holding, Bonuan Binloc is the number one drug hub in Pangasinan.
Tacio said another drug hot spot in the province is Barangay Camantiles in Urdaneta City, located in the eastern part of the province and a growing metropolis like Dagupan.
Tacio said there are in fact 102 drug-affected barangays in Pangasinan, not just 78 as cited by Villar, but Barangay Bonuan Binloc is indeed the number one in the list, classified as a Category 1 area for being the most seriously drug-affected barangay in the province.
Tacio confirmed that an area placed under Category 1 is suspected to have more than one drug pusher and at least one clandestine drug laboratory, a warehouse or a den.
He, however, clarified that based on PDEA monitoring, there is no drug laboratory currently existing in any part of Region 1.
KAPITAN’S DENIAL
Meanwhile, Barangay Chairman Pedro Gonzales of Bonuan Binloc, in a talk to the media, flatly denied that his barangay is seriously affected by illegal drugs.
Gonzales said records show that during the term of outgoing Mayor Benjamin Lim with Superintendent Romeo Caramat as his chief of police, several drug users and pushers were arrested and sent to jail.
Gonzales pointed a finger at his predecessor, Kapitan Dado Torio, saying it was under Torio’s term that the drug problem proliferated.
Gonzales also denied that he or any member of his family are involved in illegal drug dealing.
He appealed to the police to assign officers at the precinct of the barangay council in Sitio Silungan to monitor and stop drug trafficking, which he said is perpetrated mostly by strangers who are visiting some Muslim settlers.
Three other barangays of Dagupan are listed as moderately affected or under Category 2. These are Bonuan Boquig, Bonuan Gueset and Lucao.
Barangays classified under Category 2 have at least one drug pusher or trafficker operating.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
In a related development, Villar has reiterated his call to lawmakers to again study the possibility of restoring capital punishment for those involved in heinous crimes, including drug trafficking.
Villar cited that the Philippines remains one of the few countries without a death penalty in its justice system, which is why international drug syndicates such as the West African drug ring are emboldened to operate in the country.
In other countries, possession of even just a few grams of illegal drugs is punishable by death whereas in the Philippines, the maximum punishment for a crime as serious as protection of and involvement in a drug laboratory is only life imprisonment.
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