Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday lauded the Department of the Interior and Local Government for awarding the city government as the best anti-drug abuse council in Metro Manila.
“I am very proud that we are, once again, recognized as one of the best anti-drug abuse councils among all local government units nationwide. It’s because we have the most effective working framework and the political will to implement programs to lessen the city’s drug problem,” said Belmonte, who chairs the city anti-drug council.
“We have almost 27,000 drug surrenders and just last December, we were able to produce 560 graduates on our community-based drug rehabilitation program,” she added.
Last December, the DILG acknowledged the city government’s anti-drug campaign and gave it a perfect 100 functionality points for “ideal/ high functionality,” together with 20 other local governments out of the 241 awardees nationwide in the recent 1st National Anti-Drug Abuse Council Performance Awards.
“We now have 23 drug-free barangays, and the youth of our city continues to engage in our anti-illegal drugs campaign. It just shows that the city government and our people are working harmoniously because all of us want a drug-free city. This is the result of our collaborative effort,” the vice mayor said.