Police, other law enforcement agencies in NIR continue to join hands in fight vs. drugs
BACOLOD CITY, Jan. 13 (PNA) -- All units under the Police Regional Office-18 (PRO 18) are working with other law enforcement agencies to address the proliferation of illegal drugs in Negros Island Region (NIR).
This was stressed by Chief Inspector Dianne Grace Catedral, public information officer of PRO-18, in a report Friday after President Rodrigo Duterte himself said that the NIR is the third most drug-affected region in the country during his meeting with all the mayors in Malacañang on Wednesday.
National Capital Region was number one in the list followed by Central Luzon.
The President confirmed that 90 percent of the barangays in NIR are affected by illegal drugs.
Catedral said: “With our Project Double Barrel and Oplan Tokhang, we hope to neutralize and put behind bars all the pushers and rehabilitate the users.â€
She added that the community should also do their part in helping the police because the fight against illegal drugs is not the responsibility of the police alone.
For his part, Senior Superintendent Mariano Natu-el Jr., PRO-18 deputy regional director for operations, said that although NIR is the third most drug-affected region, it is not really seriously-affected by illegal drugs.
He explained that the data refer only to the number of affected barangays, but not in terms of the number of users and pushers.
Natu-el added that the percentage of drug users and pushers compared to the barangay population in the region is “very minimal.â€
“It’s not alarming in terms of number of users to the percentage of population,†he said.
Natu-el added that most of the users and pushers in NIR have already been identified, adding that PRO-18 is now focusing on the clearing of the barangays from illegal drugs.
Negros Island has 1,219 barangays – 601 in Negros Occidental, 557 in Negros Oriental, and 61 in Bacolod City.
Records of PRO-18 as of September 2016 showed that 1,107, or 90.08 percent of the barangays in NIR are drug-affected.
As of December, 31 barangays in Negros Occidental and 24 in Negros Oriental have already been already cleared from illegal drugs.(PNA)
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=84964.0