Drug-free Pangasinan by December, possible
PD LEE IS OPTIMISTIC
LINGAYEN– The Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO) remains confident that the whole province will be drug-free December this year even if only six of the 47 towns and cities of Pangasinan have been declared drug-free to date.
Already validated as drug-free are Mapandan, Laoac, Agno, Alaminos City, Dasol and San Nicolas.
The seventh town, Sto. Tomas, has been deemed drug-unaffected ever since by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Police Provincial Director Ronald Oliver Lee said there are actually 18 towns, led by Manaoag, that have been declared drug-free but still subject to validation by PDEA.
Lee explained that the delay is caused by the lack of documentation requirements imposed by PDEA.
He said the town of Natividad could have long been declared as drug-cleared but it has not complied fully with all the documentation requirements.
The regional committee that evaluates final status is composed of PDEA Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Health.
PDEA will not declare a town drug-free if there is no Drug Dependency Evaluation (DDE) for every drug personality that surrendered, whether user or pusher.
The DDE is a system of finding out if the drug personality still has illegal drugs in his or her body. If still found positive of illegal drugs, he or she will be recommended for rehabilitation either in a government center or in community-based rehab depending on his or her degree of affectation.
Lee told newsmen only 54 barangays from more than 1,200 remain to be cleared of drugs or two or three barangays in each of the drug-affected towns.
San Carlos City have yet the most barangays that remained drug-affected being a big city.
He pointed out that one difficulty is to have every drug personality in the barangays who surrendered or refused to surrender or moved to other places be accounted for.
Asked if there are politicians considered high-value targets that have not been arrested, Lee replied in the negative. He said all the. barangay captains and kagawads in the watch list have already surrendered and have been processed.
Lee lauded Dagupan City for committing the biggest number of severely affected drug drug-users and pushers to the Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center. (Leonardo Micua)
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