SMALL BITES Bogo as drug-free city

Acity in Cebu Province on Friday was declared drug-free. You heard it right, a city in this province has been cleared of illegal drugs. No, it isn’t Cebu City, it’s Bogo City, nearly 100 kilometers up north.

So, it’s possible after all for a city or town to become drug-free, as what happened in Bogo City.

But it’s still not clear who made this possible. Is it the police or the local officials in Bogo City?

Chief Supt. Noli Talino, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director, said Bogo is the first city in Central Visayas and the second in the Philippines with all of its barangays declared drug free.

Bogo City Mayor Carlo Martinez and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III on Friday led the ceremony in declaring all of the 29 barangays in Bogo City cleared from the presence of illegal drugs, users and pushers.

Where did all the illegal drugs, users and pushers go? Did they just vanish in a flash and a boom after someone uttered an abracadabra ala Harry Potter?

There’s no incantation, no silver bullet, no sleight of hand, no quick fix for the illegal drugs problem.

The Bogo experience should be of interest to all local chief executives in the province and elsewhere in the country.

Local government officials and the police in Bogo City have blazed a trail which others may follow.

It must not be a walk in the park as they have to comply with Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) parameters before their city was declared drug-free.

Among them are: no drug supply, no drug transit, no clandestine drug laboratory, no clandestine drug warehouse, no clandestine chemical warehouse, no marijuana plantation and no drug dens.

Also, there must be no drug pushers, no drug users or dependents and no protectors or coddlers and financiers.

So, it’s possible after all for a city or town to become drug-free