52% of Central Visayas barangays affected by drugs

CEBU, Philippines —  Of the more than 3,000 barangays in Central Visayas, only about 52 percent are affected by illegal drugs, said Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 Director Roderick Augustus Alba.

Of the 1,558 drug-affected barangays, 675 are slightly affected, 834 are moderately affected, while 49 are seriously affected.

"Through the series of Barangay Drug Clearing Operations conducted, 1,329 of these drugs affected barangays were already declared as drug cleared by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing or the ROCBDC chaired by PDEA, with DILG as Co-Chair and the PNP, the DOH and the LGU as members," said Alba.

Apart from the barangays, there are municipalities that have been declared drug cleared such as Enrique Villanueva in the Province of Siquijor, the Municipality of Poro and San Francisco in the island of Camotes, Madridejos in the island of Bantayan, and Santander in the Province of Cebu.

Currently there are 61 barangays and the municipality of Pilar in Camotes island as candidates for the declaration of being drug cleared areas.

"The application of these candidate barangays and municipalities have already passed the initial evaluation by the secretariat of the ROCBDC, the tentative schedule for the deliberation is on November 22 and 23 this year," said Alba.

NBI Operation

Meanwhile, at least two drug suspects were caught in a buy-bust operation conducted by members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) near the Mandaue City Hall.

NBI’s Bienvenido C. Panican said they conducted a buy-bust operation at around 10 a.m. but the suspects escaped.

During the hot pursuit operation, they located the suspects near the City Hall and who were supposed to escape again, but one of the NBI agents shot the tires of the suspects' car.

“Nag hot pursuit kami hinanap namin ang whereabouts nila.  Nakita namin malapit sa may City Hall.  Nang ma-flag down namin, nag-attempt na tumakas…kaya pinutokan ng isang operative natin ang gulong ng sasakyan nila at naging result sa pag kahuli nila,” said Panican.

The suspects were identified as Ernest Mercado, 41, and Kevin Sanchez, 39, a call center agent.

Recovered from the suspects were packets believed to contain shabu worth P34,000. — GAN (FREEMAN)