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Friday, March 29, 2024

Village leaders ‘closely watched’

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Several barangay chairmen in Manila who were confirmed to be involved with illegal drugs are now being closely watched, Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada said on Tuesday.

Estrada said the surveillance is part of evidence-gathering efforts of the Manila Police District to pin down these officials and expose their alleged links to drug syndicates, including those confirmed to be drug dependents.

While declining to give further details, the mayor reiterated his earlier assurance to publicly name those barangay chairmen in due time.

“We will not name them first. We need complete evidence,” he stressed, adding that criminal and administrative charges await the unscrupulous barangay officials aside from their dismissal from government service.

Last November, Estrada ordered the mandatory drug testing of the 7,168 elected barangay officials in the city’s 896 barangays, as part of his campaign to eliminate drugs in the capital city.

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Earlier, the mayor confirmed that some barangay chairmen have tested positive for drug use, after confirmatory drug tests at the East Avenue Medical Center.

The drug test results are now with the Manila Health Department, Manila Barangay Bureau, and the MPD, he said.

Estrada and the 36-member City Council, including Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna, subjected themselves to drug testing at city hall on Aug. 18. None of them tested positive.

It was the first time in recent years a city mayor voluntarily submitted to a drug test, which was also the first ever to be conducted at Manila City Hall.

Estrada’s move to subject barangay officials to mandatory drug tests was an offshoot of last October’s anti-drug operation at the Islamic Center, Quiapo. There, incumbent Barangay 648 Chairman Faiz Macabato was killed after fighting with policemen who were about to serve an arrest warrant to his brother, a drug suspect.

On Friday, Estrada is set to grace the joint graduation of 4,000 Grade 5 and 6 students who completed the 10-hour Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program handled by specially-trained police officers at 10 a.m. at San Andres Sports Complex.

Estrada introduced DARE to the country in 1993 and revived it in Manila to keep students away from drugs and other harmful vices. The program is designed as a “demand reduction strategy” of the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.

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