Nocppo bares anti-drugs accomplishments

THE Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo), during the joint Provincial Peace and Order – Provincial Anti-drug Abuse Councils meeting at the Provincial Capitol recently, bared its accomplishments on the campaign against illegal drugs.

Police Senior Superintendent Romeo Baleros, provincial director of Nocppo, said there were 1,172 personalities in the prov- ince included in the illegal drugs watchlist at the onset of Oplan Tokhang.

Now, there are only 75 personalities remaining in the list.

Baleros also disclosed that the top three police stations with most number of personalities in the watchlist are San Carlos with 11, Kabankalan with seven, and Calatrava with six.

Police records showed that there are 11,807 drug users in the province and so far, 11,290 surrendered.

In 2018 alone, there were 574 pushers and 87 users arrested, it showed.

Based on the bio profile of surrenderees in the province, 52.41 percent are unemployed, 24.24 percent are employed, and 14.90 percent are students.

In southern Negros under the Jessie Ramos Drug group, there were 34 arrested and nine surrendered. While in the north under the Michael Divinagracia drug group, 11 were arrested and one surrendered.

The province has 495 barangays affected of illegal drugs out of 600 total barangays. This accounts to a 64.72 percent affectation.

Some 34 barangays are up for Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) clearing while 106 were already cleared by the agency.

In terms of cases, there were already 3,796 filed since the start of Oplan Tokhang. Some 2,006 cases are on trial, 134 were convicted, and 59 were dismissed.

For the police’s cleansing efforts, only eight personnel were listed before the start of the campaign as involved in illegal drugs. But, from the second semester of 2016 until 2017 it increased to 80.

In 2018, eight additional personnel in service are involved.

Of the police personnel involved in illegal drugs, 25 went absent without leave, dropped from roster or dismissed. While, 26 were re-assigned pending investigation and 42 remain in service.

As of January this year, total illegal drugs value confiscated is at about P747,724.

To intensify campaign against illegal drugs, Nocppo aims to dismantle existing and emerging drug groups, put security measures in place at ports, and update data on tokhang surrenderers and local watchlisted drug personalities. It also works on continuous seizure of illegal drugs supply, assist the barangays to become drug-free and increase awareness on the the impact of illegal drugs to families, schools and even churches./pia Negros Occidental