Iloilo City ‘winning the war’ against drugs – PDEA
The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Western Visayas expressed confidence that the city government is finding solution to the drug problem in the metropolis.
“We are winning the war (against drugs in Iloilo City). We have no problem here,” PDEA Regional Director Paul Ledesma said.
“There has been a shift of drug trade from urban to rural areas,” he added, noting that most of the apprehensions during the past two months were mostly in the province of Iloilo.
In Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Iloilo City Anti-Drug Abuse Council and Peace and Order Council both chaired by Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, Ledesma reported that the strong inter-agency coordination, preventive education and community involvement led to a successful anti-drugs campaign in the city.
The Philippine National Police and the judiciary have also been very helpful in the fight against drugs.
Last year, PDEA conducted 64 anti-illegal drug operations for the supply reduction campaign in Iloilo City, which arrested 97 drug personalities, 82 arrested persons belonging to the watch list of the agency, and identified 367 watch listed personalities.
During the past two months this year, a total of 11 operations were accomplished, 15 drug personalities were arrested, wherein eight of them were persons under PDEA’s watch list.
Ledesma stated these are lower than the figures in 2008, but claimed that drug trafficking has been “very fluid and complex” and that drug dealers “have shifted their modus operandi.”
In 2008, the agency conducted 107 operations leading to the arrest of 167 persons in which 70 of them were in the watch list. PDEA also recorded 346 drug personalities.
Meanwhile, PDEA still continues to concentrate on six villages here seriously affected by illegal drugs. These are Veterans Village, Tanza Esperanza and Malipayon in the City Proper district; Bakhaw in Mandurriao; Desamparados in Jaro; and Boulevard in Molo.
The six villages were identified as “drug sources,” with Desamparados tagged as a “hot spot” due to the presence of 17 drug dens.
Eleven villages out of 180 are moderately affected by illegal drugs, while the rest are slightly affected, as indicated by the presence of at least one user. (PIO)
