‘Drug-cleared’ barangays

THE Central Visayas version of the oversight committee on illegal drugs recently declared 40 more barangays in Cebu province as “drug-cleared.” The villages are in northern Cebu, with the majority from Bogo City.

Under Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation No. 3 Series of 2017, “drugcleared” barangays are those that have been “previously drug-affected and subjected to drugclearing operations and declared free from any illegal drugs activities.”

But a barangay can only be declared free of illegal drug activities if it passes the following parameters: that illegal drug is no longer available in the village, there is no longer any drug transit/transshipment activity there, no clandestine drug laboratory, no clandestine drug warehouse, no clandestine chemical warehouse, no marijuana cultivation site, no drug den, no drug pusher, no drug user/dependent, and no protector, coddler and financier.

Also, the villages must not only be free of illegal drugs it must have officials and activities that would ensure the maintenance of the cleared status. Meaning that barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials must be active in anti-drug activities.

And there must be in the village “drug awareness, preventive education and information and other related programs” plus “voluntary and compulsory drug-related treatment and rehabilitation and processing desk.”

Considering the lofty “parameter,” the DDB seems intent on stressing the purpose of the declaration, which is to clear barangays of illegal drugs and ensure that they would remain permanently clear.

Indeed, this point is written all over Board Regulation No. 3, which makes the declaration of barangays as “drug-cleared” as the culmination of a long process that involves the pre-operation, operation and post-operation phases. Unfortunately, some of the implementers of Board Regulation No. 3 consider the drug-clear-