‘PUNISH BRGYS. WITH INACTIVE BADACS’

Police say officials of villages in Central Visayas who did not convene their anti-drug councils may be considered as narco-politicians and face administrative cases.

The Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 urged local government units to punish non-performing Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (BADAC), which government considers as the first line of defense against the illegal drug trade.

Supt. Reyman Tolentin, PRO 7 information officer, said that 332 out of the 3,003 barangays in Central Visayas failed to conduct BADAC meetings last January.

The villages that did not conduct BADAC meetings last February fell to 240.

Mandaue City has the highest rate of failure in convening BADACs in the past two months.

Tolentin said that 22 out of the 27 villages in the city did not hold meetings last January and 14 villages did the same last February.

“If you are not conducting BADAC meetings, then you might be adjudged as a narco-politician. That’s the danger,” Tolentin said.

Village officials can also be made to face administrative cases for their failure to convene their BADACs.

Tolentin said there were 1,571 barangays that held BADAC meetings last January and 1,663 last month.

Village officials, he said, should not abandon their duties and not just focus on the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, which is scheduled on May 14.

The past barangay elections happened in 2010 and 2013 yet.

In 2016 and 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte postponed the barangay and SK polls after expressing fears of drug money getting into the elections.