Pangasinan: More than 94 percent of the 1,272 drug-affected villages in Pangasinan province have been cleared of illegal drug activities, leaving only 68 villages still facing drug-related issues, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) disclosed. "We still have 5.34 percent affected. We are 94.66 percent drug-cleared," stated PDEA-Pangasinan provincial officer Dexter Asayco in an interview, highlighting the current status of drug-affected villages.
According to Philippines News Agency, Pangasinan comprises a total of 1,364 barangays spanning four cities and 44 towns. Officer Asayco noted that the remaining affected villages have drug personalities under surveillance and require the establishment of a Balay Silangan, a necessary step for achieving drug-clearing status.
"This is connected to our monitoring and their drug personalities. Many were part of the Community-Based Rehabilitation Program, which improved our requirements, like targeted exposure for those needing to enter Balay Silangan. We know not all localities have Balay Silangan," Asayco explained. He further mentioned the challenges in forming agreements with local government units (LGUs) that possess Balay Silangan facilities, primarily due to financial constraints.
Asayco also reported that efforts to transform the province into a transshipment point for illegal drugs have been successfully countered through coordinated operations involving a task force made up of the Philippine National Police, Philippine Maritime Police, Philippine Coast Guard, and LGUs. A significant anti-drug operation last October uncovered 895 kilograms of shabu, valued at nearly PHP6.1 billion, in a residential house in Barangay Laois, Labrador town.
This operation was a follow-up to the arrest of a Chinese national and his Filipino driver in a buy-bust operation the previous day in Barangay Polong, Bugallon, where authorities seized 125 kilograms of shabu packed in plastic tea bags, worth PHP850 million. The two-day operation resulted in a total seizure valued at approximately PHP6.9 billion.
