Risks prevent barangays from helping in anti-drug campaign

By LITO RULONA

Correspondent

THE chairman of the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac) yesterday said barangay officials and members of various Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (Badac) were reluctant to help in the anti-drug campaign here for fear of their lives.

Cadac chairman and Councilor Roger Abaday said this after a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) official revealed the extent of the drug menace in the city on Monday, and attributed the worsening problem on the failure of the Badacs to help in the campaign.

Abaday, a criminologist by profession, said the campaign was expected to be a failure because of non-coordination and non-cooperation, explaining that these were risky undertakings.

He said another problem was lack of financial support from the local government.

Abaday called on the city’s Liga ng mga Barangay headed by Councilor Yan Lam Lim to do something about the problem following the PDEA’s revelation that nearly half of the city’s barangays had serious drug problems.

On Monday, PDEA regional director Wilkins Villanueva disclosed the Agency has listed at least 165 shabu dealers in the city and each one has an average of 20 buyers or  some 3,300 shabu users in 38 of the city’s 80 barangays. The figures exclude members of drug syndicates and their protectors.

“We have to activate, and educate the communities about the effects of illegal drugs,” Abaday said.

He said there was a need to make the Badacs actively help in the campaign by first making sure that their members are given protection by the government.

“Dugay na ang kampanya batok sa ginadili nga droga pero wala kini milihok. Busa maningkamot ang Cadac to operate bisan gamay ra ang pundo. Diha lang una kami taman sa education campaign. Dili successful ang campaign kung dili sila motabang,” he said.

The Badacs were organized by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in 1988 amid the proliferation of illegal drugs in the barangays.