THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has declared Southern Leyte as the first province in Eastern Visayas to be free from illegal drugs.
“The agency aims and commits itself to clear the remaining 24,424 drug-affected barangays nationwide by 2022. These barangays represent 58.10 percent out of 42,036 barangays in the country that are still plagued by the drug menace,” director general Aaron Aquino said.
“PDEA is setting the bar high. We intend to clear an average of 6,000 drug-affected barangays every year for the next four years. If we can sustain the pace, we can rid the country’s drug problem by 2022 and maintain the drug-free status,” he added.
PDEA issued a certification to Southern Leyte stating the province is drug-free after complying with the parameters set forth by the Dangerous Drugs Board as provided in Section 8, DDB Board Regulation No. 3 Series of 2017, or the “Strengthening the Implementation of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program.”
“After a thorough and rigid scrutiny of the requirements, verification and validation processes done by the oversight committee on barangay drug clearing operations headed by its chairperson, director Edgar T. Jubay, acting regional director of PDEA Regional Office VIII, representatives from the Philippine National Police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the province of Southern Leyte was declared drug-free,” Aquino said.
The certification was awarded to Gov. Christopherson Yap.