109 Maguindanao brgys declared drug-free by PDEA

BULUAN, Maguindanao – At least 109 barangays in this province have been cleared of narcotics in what Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) officials deemed as a breakthrough in the government drive for multi-sector cohesion against illegal drug activities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

This was announced on Monday by PDEA-ARMM Regional Director Juvenal Azurin in a press conference following a meeting here of the anti-narcotics municipal oversight committee (MOC) where he also officially declared Pandag town in Maguindanao as “drug free.”

Maguindanao has 36 towns with 508 barangays where campaign against illegal drugs remained a challenge largely due to dismal local cooperation and lack of logistics in some municipal governments, according to authorities.

But the feat of Pandag one of eight towns in Maguindanao subsisting without internal revenue allotments (IRAs) due to discrepancies in its creation years ago, can stimulate other towns to follow suit, Azurin said.

Azurin awarded Pandag Mayor Zihan M. Mangudadatu a PDEAARMM certification naming her turf “drug free.”

Monday’s meeting was third attempt of the multi-sector MOC to evaluate and recommend Barangay Kabuling, one of eight villages in Pandag, for its “drug free” tag required for the whole town. The first two attempts failed due to rumors that a drug personality named “Kumander Grasscutter” was operating a shabu laboratory in Kabuling.

But Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, head of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion and an MOC member, clarified in Monday’s meeting that “Kumander Grasscutter” has been residing and operating in Barangay Lipao, a village in adjacent town of Datu Paglas.