{"id":267756,"date":"2020-09-05T04:21:12","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267756"},"modified":"2020-09-05T04:21:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:21:12","slug":"19-8k-villages-now-drug-cleared-pdea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/05\/19-8k-villages-now-drug-cleared-pdea\/","title":{"rendered":"19.8K villages now drug-cleared: PDEA"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_267759\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267759\" style=\"width: 415px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/real-numbers-infogfx.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-267759\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/real-numbers-infogfx.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"415\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/real-numbers-infogfx.jpg 415w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/real-numbers-infogfx-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-267759\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Based on a PDEA infographic, at least 19,876 out of the 42,042 barangays (villages) in the country have been declared drug-cleared as of July 31. (Infographic courtesy of PDEA via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 More than 19,000 barangays across the country have already been cleared of illegal drugs since the start of the Duterte administration&#8217;s crackdown on illegal drugs in 2016, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reported on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Based on a PDEA infographic, at least 19,876 out of the 42,042 barangays (villages) in the country have been declared drug-cleared as of July 31.<\/p>\n<p>These barangays have reached drug-cleared status after the issuance of a certification by members of the Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug-Clearing Program.<\/p>\n<p>The agency assured that the health and safety of its agents are prioritized in anti-drug operations.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a total of 14,491 barangays have yet to be cleared of illegal drugs.<\/p>\n<p>PDEA Director General Wilkins VIllanueva earlier said the agency aims to declare as cleared the remaining drug-affected barangays in the country by June 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are 702 days to go before the deadline on ending the country\u2019s drug problem as committed by the President to the Filipino people. PDEA\u2019s self-imposed countdown creates a higher sense of urgency, no matter how difficult the challenge is,\u201d Villanueva said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n<p>He added that PDEA, as the lead agency against illegal drugs, adopted a three-pronged strategy in the national anti-drug campaign which focuses on reducing its supply, demand, and harmful effects.<\/p>\n<p>The agency has created a Barangay Drug Clearing Program Working Group for Monitoring and Validation to fast-track drug-clearing operations in the communities and prevents the proliferation of illegal drugs in the barangays.<\/p>\n<p>The Barangay Drug Clearing Program (BDCP) encompasses a holistic and whole-of-nation approach in addressing the drug problem by enlisting the participation of local government units (LGUs), government agencies, and various stakeholders of the national anti-drug campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a total of 9,706 high-value targets (HVTs) were arrested from July 1, 2016 to July. 31, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The figure included 3,776 HVTs arrested from high impact operations, 2,835 target-listed suspects, 741 drug group leaders\/members, 401 government employees, 336 elected officials, 279 foreigners, 222 included on wanted lists, 96 uniformed personnel, 62 armed group members, and 11 prominent personalities.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities also arrested 251,889 individuals involved in illegal drugs during the period.<\/p>\n<p>As of July 2020, the consolidated report showed that 5,819 drug suspects have died during 173,348 anti-illegal drug operations.<\/p>\n<p>From July 2016 to July 2020, authorities also rescued 3,254 minors involved in illegal drug activities. This includes 1,817 pushers; 868 possessors; 385 users; 161 drug den visitors; 11 drug den employees, eight drug den maintainers, two cultivators, one runner, and clan lab employee\/ laborer.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities also dismantled a total of 581 drug dens and 16 clandestine shabu laboratories and seized PHP52.77 billion worth of illegal drugs, which includes PHP43.20 billion worth of shabu.<\/p>\n<p>On August 21, PDEA led the biggest destruction of confiscated illegal drugs worth PHP13 billion in Trece Martires City, Cavite.<\/p>\n<p>Villanueva said the supply of illegal drugs in the Philippines is primarily coming from abroad as there are no longer huge drug laboratories in the country.<em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2013 More than 19,000 barangays across the country have already been cleared of illegal drugs since the start of the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":267759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-christopher-lloyd-caliwan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267756","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267760,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267756\/revisions\/267760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}