{"id":239889,"date":"2019-12-12T20:45:52","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T01:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239889"},"modified":"2019-12-12T20:49:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T01:49:20","slug":"16706-barangays-cleared-of-illegal-drugs-pdea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/12\/16706-barangays-cleared-of-illegal-drugs-pdea\/","title":{"rendered":"16,706 barangays \u201ccleared\u201d of illegal drugs\u201d: PDEA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino bared that 16,706 barangays have been listed as \u201cdrug-cleared\u201d while 17,175 identified villages have yet to be cleared of illegal drugs from July 2016 to November 2019 under the Duterte administration’s continuing anti-illegal drugs campaign. (File Photo<\/a>: PDEA Top Stories\/Facebook)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Thursday said it is over halfway its target of clearing the drug-affected\u00a0barangays<\/em>\u00a0(villages) in the country by 2022.<\/p>\n

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino bared that 16,706 barangays have been listed as \u201cdrug-cleared\u201d while 17,175 identified villages have yet to be cleared of illegal drugs from July 2016 to November 2019 under the Duterte administration’s continuing anti-illegal drugs campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we are over halfway on our target to clear\u00a0ang barangay<\/em>\u00a0(the villages) by 2022. We\u2019re still crossing our fingers by 2022 we can accomplish to clear all barangays of drugs,\u201d Aquino said in a press briefing in Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

Aquino said it was \u201cdoable\u201d to achieve its targets, but admitted that the challenges remain \u201cso high\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe remaining barangays are the most notorious barangays in terms of drug affectations,\u201d Aquino said.<\/p>\n

There are three basic parameters in determining barangay drug-affectation: slightly affected, moderately affected, and seriously affected.<\/p>\n

Barangays are considered slightly affected if there is a reported presence of drug user\/s; moderately affected if there is a reported presence of drug pusher\/s and\/or user\/s; and seriously affected if there is a reported presence of any of the following: clandestine drug laboratory, warehouse, marijuana plantation, drug den\/tiangge, drug trafficking or smuggling activities, and drug personalities such as users, pushers, financiers, protectors, cultivators, manufacturers and others.<\/p>\n

At present, PDEA continues to implement harm-reduction efforts to prevent or end drug dependency such as: \u201cBalay Silangan\u201d, a community-based reformation program for surrendering drug offenders; Project: \u201cSagip Batang Solvent\u201d, to rescue street children, particularly those hooked on solvent-sniffing; drug test of public transport drivers nationwide, to ensure road safety; and, \u201cDrug-Free Workplace Program\u201d, which aims to promote a working environment free from the influence of dangerous drugs in business establishments.<\/p>\n

PDEA spokesman Derrick Arnold Carreon bared that a total of 433 dens and clandestine laboratories have been dismantled by law enforcement authorities from July 2016 to November 2019.<\/p>\n

A total of PHP40.39 billion worth of illegal drugs were seized in the same period.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Aquino, also chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), admitted that sacked ICAD co-chair, Vice President Leni Robredo made no significant contributions to these numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Vice President was not really involved in terms of law enforcement. She did not in any way supervise our people down there in the fields,\u201d Aquino said.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 31, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Robredo as anti-drug czar to help Aquino co-chair the ICAD.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, fired the Vice President on Nov. 24 after she committed \u201cmissteps” such as talking to foreign individuals and groups which he claimed already \u201cprejudged\u201d the government\u2019s campaign against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Robredo earlier claimed she is set to release her findings and observations on the anti-narcotics campaign on Monday (Dec. 16) despite no longer being part of the ICAD.<\/p>\n

Aquino said her recommendations were welcome as long as they were found to be “beneficial” to the committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Thursday said it is over halfway its target of clearing the drug-affected\u00a0barangays\u00a0(villages) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":227115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239890,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239889\/revisions\/239890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}