PNP finds 20 towns, 3 cities still drug-affected
THERE are 26 towns and one city in Pangasinan that already have been drug-cleared, but 20 towns and 3 cities still have to be cleared to date.
P/Major Arturo Melchor Jr., public information officer of the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO) confirmed this during the virtual KBP Forum on Wednesday even as he clarified that of the four cities of Pangasinan, only Alaminos City has been drug-cleared and the cities of Dagupan, San Carlos and Urdaneta remain drug-affected.
Of the 43 towns, only Sto. Tomas is considered drug-unaffected.
According to Melchor, the chiefs of police in the 20 remaining drug-affected towns and cities were given up to the end of the year to clear their areas of illegal drugs.
Of this number, 19 municipalities and cities are presently the subject of ongoing drug-clearing operations by their respective police.
Melchor said that of the 1,300 barangays of Pangasinan, 236 remain drug-infected to this day. But of the drug-cleared barangays, five were reverted to the drug-affected category because of known drug personalities in their areas that remain accounted for.
But despite the pandemic, the police chiefs in the province have not stopped going after drug dealers in a bid to make their areas and the whole of Pangasinan as drug-free soon.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has issued the clarification that a town or city is drug-free only when it is finally cleared of any trace of illegal drugs.
A drug cleared municipality or city, he said, can aspire for the annual Anti-Drug Abuse Council (ADAC) award with a prize that goes with it by the Department of the Interior and Local Government. (Leonardo Micua)
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