BAGUIO CITY – The Regional Oversight Committee recently declared eight drug affected barangays of the city as cleared from the proliferation of illegal drugs pursuant to the parameters set by concerned government agencies for the said purpose.
The approved resolution declaring the 8 barangays as drug cleared were turned over by the members of the oversight committee to the barangay officials during the regular flag raising ceremony of the local government last Monday at the city hall grounds.
The drug cleared barangays are Aurora Hill and Lopez Jaena within the jurisdiction of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Station No. 6, barangays Cabinet Hill and Engineer’s Hill under BCPO Station No. 3, Burnham-Legarda and BGH Compound under BCPO Station No. 5 and Upper Market Subdivision and New Lucban under BCPO Station No. 7.
The committee is chaired by the regional director of the Cordillera office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency with the regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government as vice chairman. The members are the regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Health, regional director of the Police Regional Office – Cordillera and the City Mayor.
Aurora Hill and Lopez Jaena barangays were declared drug-cleared during the first quarter meeting of the oversight committee while Cabinet Hill, Engineer’s Hill, Burnham-Legarda, BGH Compound, Upper Market Subdivision and New Lucban were declared as drug-cleared during the committee’s second quarter meeting.
Mayor Mauricio g. Domogan commended the barangay officials and residents of the 8 newly declared drug-cleared barangays for their individual and collective efforts in curbing the proliferation of illegal drugs in their areas of jurisdiction.
He underscored that since the aggressive implementation of the government’s anti-drug campaign right at the start of the term of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, the local government joined the said efforts to spare the youth from the serious negative effects of illegal drugs.
According to him, law enforcers and anti-narcotics agents have to work extra hard to address the issue of Baguio city remaining a transshipment point of shabu from the lowlands to the different parts of the Cordillera and marijuana from the highlands to the different markets in the lowland communities.
Further, Domogan also urged the different intelligence agencies to closely work together to find ways on how to address the fact that Baguio City is the favourite rest and recreation destination of high profile drug personalities wanting to escape from the heightened operations against them in their places of trading prohibited drugs.
Last year, the number of drug affected barangays significantly increased following the alleged resurgence of new drug personalities in the barangays previously cleared prompting the committee to revert the same as drug-affected barangays based on the parameters crafted by the concerned government agencies in assessing the state of barangays in the different localities around the country.
By Dexter A. See
