Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Wednesday issued another ultimatum to the city’s 896 barangay chairmen to cut their ties with drug lords or face dismissal from their posts.
Estrada revealed the investigation and surveillance of barangay heads suspected of involvement to drugs is nearing completion, saying that he does not give second chances.
“I’m telling you now. There will be no second chances,” Estrada said, referring to barangay officials who are in the police’s drug watch list.
“Just explain yourselves in jail,” he added.
Estrada said the Manila Police District is currently building up the cases against these unscrupulous barangay chairmen, who are either in the payola of drug syndicates or directly involved in drug trade in their own neighborhoods.
“They cannot stay as leaders because they are the ones who will destroy our communities,” he pointed out.
Late last month, Estrada revealed that 32 barangay officials in Manila, from chairmen to kagawad or councilor, are currently in the drug watch list provided by the local police, including the Malate barangay chief who was recently shot and killed by unknown assassins.
Estrada rallied the barangay chairmen to be fearless in helping the city government fight drugs, even as he noted that drug lords have the financial capability and connections to harm anyone that stand in their way.
“Drug lords are some of the richest people in our country,” he stressed. “And their influence reaches far and wide, and they have the capacity to do harm.”
“As a civil servant, fear must not prevail. Especially that we cannot avoid our responsibilities. We must help each other,” Estrada told the barangay chairmen.
Last November, Estrada ordered the barangay chairmen to submit themselves to drug testing following the previous month’s police raid at the Islamic Center in Quiapo where then incumbent Barangay 648 Chairman Faiz Macabato, was killed after fighting it out with policemen who were about to serve an arrest warrant to his drug suspect-brother.
The results of the drug test will soon be released, according to the Manila Barangay Bureau and Manila Health Department.
Last week, as part of the celebrations of the 446th Araw ng Maynila, Estrada awarded plaques of recognition and P50,000 cash prize each to six outstanding barangay chairmen: Danilo Casasola, Jr. (Brgy 129, District 1); Ronaldo Luna (Brgy 238, District 2); Ma. Victoria Grande (Brgy 377, District 3); Filomena Cinco (Brgy 412, District 4); Kristo Hispano (Brgy 649, District 5); and Hermie Eronga (Brgy 874, District 6).
Thirty barangays were also named recipients of Best Practices Awards in the fields of peace and order, environment conservation, public health, disaster preparedness, and social welfare.
Meanwhile, more than 200 children who were rescued from the streets of Manila completed on Wednesday the anti-drug education program Drug Abuse Resistance Education being implemented by Estrada.
The 202 street children, aged eight to 14, are the first batch of homeless children at the Manila Boystown Complex in Marikina City — a halfway house for orphans, juvenile delinquents, and former drug dependents being run by the city government of Manila — to undergo DARE lessons.
In simple recognition ceremonies at the facility, Estrada called on the young DARE graduates, some of whom were the so-called “rugby boys” or substance abusers, to shun drugs and other vices and instead go to school to start a new life.
“You’re probably thinking that no one cares for you and that you no longer have any chance at all,” Estrada told the street children in Filipino. “It’s too early for you to give up life. You still have a bright future ahead of you.”
“But you can’t have a future if you continue using drugs. Stop it, it won’t do you any good,” he added.
For those wanting to go to school, Estrada said public schools in Manila are tuition-free, including school supplies and uniforms.
The city-run Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and Universidad de Manila also offer college degrees, free of charge, to poor but deserving students, Estrada added.