CHR to probe posting of drug-free posters
CEBU CITY — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Central Visayas said it will look into the anti-illegal drug campaign in Barangay Ermita.
Barangay chief Felicisimo Rupinta, accompanied by some councilors, had put up tarpaulin posters with the message: “This house is a drug-free home” in 217 households in Sitios Bato and Katsilaan, the whole day Thursday.
CHR Central Visayas Chief Investigator Leo Villarino said the move is reminiscent of the “shame campaign” carried out by officials of Barangay Pajo in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, last month.
Last September 4, Pajo village and police officials spray-painted the message “Identified Drug Den Area” on at least four doors of an apartment, following reports that the apartment units were frequented by drug users.
Villarino said posting signs that identify particular houses as drug-free creates the impression that houses without the sticker harbor drug users.
CHR Central Visayas Head Arvin Odron agreed with Villarino, saying that residents of a house with no drugfree stickers could be “unduly discriminated and/or tagged as drug-users or pushers without due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution.”
“This also violates the right of any person to be heard before he or she is condemned. A person’s honor as well as reputation of his or her family would also be harmed,” Odron said.
Rupinta told reporters posting the controversial stickers, which was the idea of Association of Barangay Council – Cebu Chapter President Phillip Zafra, was a “positive approach.”
He said around 1,600 houses in Ermita are “drug-free,” and that barangay workers will finish posting the signs within the week.
Rupinta said the stickers will not be posted on 300 to 400 houses that he said are drug-infested.
Ermita, which has 2,017 houses, was named by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as one of the drug “hot spots” in the city.
“There are many people involved in the survey, the homeowners association, mga madre, mga tanod, mga lupon, mga konsehal pud. Among gimeeting ang tanan ug gi-validate namo isa kabuwan kapin (nuns, barangay tanods, pacification committees, even councilors. We all met to validate the list for a month” he said.
Rupinta said he will meet today with the residents of houses with no stickers to explain to them the program and to advise them to stop dealing drugs.
He warned that if anyone from the “drug-free” residences gets involved in drug activities, the sticker will be removed.
Rupinta said that before the campaign was carried out, he sent letters to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and PDEA but he received no response.
“What I am doing is to prove that I am serious in the campaign against illegal drugs. I am not a drug protector as what some people try to portray me,” he said.
Rupinta and with seven barangay councilors were suspended for six months for failing to support a drug raid in the neighborhood in November of last year.
PDEA regional office spokesperson Earl Rallos said Rupinta did not consult the agency over the list of residents in the barangay involved in illegal drugs but made it clear that they will continue to keep watch, saying the stickers “are not a guarantee” for PDEA to not go after them.