DDB to polish ‘delisting’ process
MANILA – The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) is in the process of creating a regulation on the delisting of persons erroneously included on its watch list.
During a webinar conducted by the DDB on Friday, Undersecretary Benjamin Reyes said they are trying to polish the delisting process.
“May validation process ang PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency), pulis at sa barangay. May proseso tayong ipapasok diyan para maiwasan. Dadaan yan sa masusing proseso para wala yung mga ganyang napagbibintangan (The PDEA, the police, and the barangay have a validation process. We will include a process to prevent the listing of a person by mistake),” Reyes said.
The chief of the DDB’s Legal Affairs Division, lawyer Philip Joseph Vera Cruz, said persons who use drugs (PWUDs) who have undergone and completed treatment and rehabilitation may also be delisted.
“Delisting is an essential tool that is needed to ensure that those who have undertaken and have successfully completed interventions are no longer subject to law enforcement operations or activities. Tinatanggal na natin sila sa sphere sa loob ng law enforcement. Ang kanila talaga is health and social intervention ang kailangan (We remove them from the sphere of law enforcement. What they need are health and social interventions),” Vera Cruz said.
He said the DDB targets PWUDs who need intervention and profiles them for proper and appropriate interventions based on their needs.
Vera Cruz said drug dependents and drug users, considered as PWUDs, are classified under the watch list, target list, or wanted list.
Persons on the watch list are being validated by law enforcement agencies. “So, basically, they are currently under investigation,” he said.
Those on the target list have been validated. “Meron na po tayong validated information na indeed involved po sila sa illegal drug activities (We have validated information that indeed they are involved in illegal drug activities),” Vera Cruz said.
He said those on the wanted list have pending cases in court and those who are “fugitives from justice.”
“Isang document na pwedeng gamitin to delist a certain person from the watch list or target list ng ating mga law enforcement agencies is yung ini-issue ng court na nagsasabing ang patient is discharged na po from treatment and rehabilitation (One document that may be used by law enforcement agencies to delist a person from the watch list or target list is that which is issued by the court, stating that the patient has undergone treatment and rehabilitation),” Vera Cruz said. (PNA)