CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Anti-Drug Abuse Council has challenged the Department of the Interior and Local Government to closely monitor and file cases against barangay officials who failed to convene and activate their Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council.
The creation of BADAC is mandatory under a DILG memorandum issued in 1998. Its composition was later expanded in 2004.
“As far as monitoring of BADAC, we already handed it over to DILG-7. I have always been challenging DILG-7,” said lawyer Clarence Paul Oaminal, CADAC presiding officer, during a press conference for the Drug Awareness Month celebration.
Activating BADAC was seen important since one of the mechanisms required for the barangay officials was to submit a report to the DILG.
Oaminal warned the barangay officials not to submit fake reports because they will face criminal charges for falsification of public documents and perjury.
CADAC passed a resolution last year requiring the quarterly submission of all BADAC reports under oath. The report should be signed by the barangay chairman and barangay secretary.
Failure to submit the required report will be used as basis of the city government not to release the barangay officials’ honorarium from the city.
Oaminal said all barangays seem to comply with the submission of BADAC report but he noticed that some of the reports were faked.
“Adto ka sa DILG, naay papel tanan. Pero ini’g tan-aw nimo sa reports, nangopya ra man sila. They ask their secretary nga maghimo-himo lang og report ug pirma lang dayon sila,” said Oaminal.
He asked the barangay officials to be serious in their duties. Oaminal is also calling on the Association of the Barangay Councils to keep on reminding the barangay officials of their duties and responsibilities.
The City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, for its part, had been distributing questionnaires in all barangays to evaluate the efficiency of the function of BADAC in their respective community.
However, COSAP reported that only 14 of the 80 barangays have returned the survey papers. (FREEMAN)