Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada is aiming to clear more than 400 drug-infested barangays in the city by the yearend.
Estrada said the city government’s barangay drug-clearing operation is well on its way to achieve its target of 424 “drug-free” barangays on or before the end of December; 24 have so far been officially declared drug-free last July.
“Barring any hitches, we could accomplish this goal before the year ends,” said Estrada, following the recent joint meeting of the Manila Peace and Order Council and Manila Anti-Drug Abuse Council.
“I am confident we can make the City of Manila the first-ever drug-free city in the country,” Estrada stressed.
During the MPOC-Madac meeting at city hall, the Manila Police District reported that Estrada’s directive to clear at least 50 percent of the city’s remaining 872 barangays is achievable.
“Of the 896 [total] barangays in Manila, at least 50 percent of barangays will be cleared and declared drug-free by December 31, 2017,” MPD Operations, Plans and Divisions head Supt. Rogelio Ramos, Jr. said.
This would be on top of the 24 barangays already declared drug-free by Estrada, Ramos added.
“On the level of the MPD, we could say some of the barangays are already cleared. But of course we need to validate this and have assistance from the PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency],” Ramos pointed out.
In coordination with MPOC and MADAC, MPD’s monthly target is 90 barangays in July; August, 80; September, 73; October, 68; November, 59; and December, 54, for a total of 424.
The 896 barangays in Manila are served by 11 police stations of the MPD that spearhead the drug-clearing operations in their respective jurisdictions in close cooperation of the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils, according to Ramos.
In the next few weeks, 56 barangays are set to be officially declared drug-free, the policeman announced.
Saying that Manila is virtually drug-free, Ramos cited the absence of drug dens in the city, which he attributed to the intensified anti-drug operations ordered by the City Hall.
“Also, we never had any [illegal drug] laboratory here,” he said.
Of the five police districts under the National Capital Regional Police Office, MPD has the highest number of drug-cleared barangays as of July, at 24; 85 of the 1,705 barangays in Metro Manila have so far been cleared of illegal drugs.
On July 17, Estrada officially declared 24 barangays as drug-free. They have satisfactorily complied with the conditions stated in the Dangerous Drugs Board Resolution No. 2, Series of 2007, according to MPD director Chief Supt. Joel Coronel.
The resolution, signed on June 6, 2007 by then-DDB Chairman Anselmo Avenido, Jr., provides the guidelines in the conduct of barangay drug-clearing operations in the local government units.
Coronel said Section 2 of the DDB resolution defines a “drug-cleared” barangay as a barangay that “is previously drug affected and subjected to drug-clearing operations and declared free from any illegal drug activities.”
To achieve the “drug-cleared” status, the barangay should satisfy the specific parameters stated in the resolution, among which are: non-availability of drug supply; absence of drug transit/transshipment activity; absence of clandestine drug laboratory; absence of clandestine drug warehouse; and absence of drug pusher, drug user, protector/coddler, and financier.
“The drug-free barangay should have an active and functioning that is taking the lead in the drug-clearing operations in the neighborhood,” Coronel pointed out.
Generally, he explained a barangay is declared “drug-free” once BADAC, in cooperation with the police, has successfully arrested, neutralized, or compelled to surrender the personalities or suspects included in its drug watch list.
As proof of the seriousness of his anti-drug campaign, Estrada on November ordered the 896 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 with policemen who were about to serve an arrest warrant to his drug suspect-brother.
Estrada revealed that 32 barangay officials in Manila, from chairmen to kagawad or barangay councilors, 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.