Dumaguete City Chief of Police Supt. Jovito Atanacio reports that since the launching Project Double Barrel, some 921 illegal drugs personalities both users and pushers, have surrendered to the police and barangay officials.
Of the 921 surrenderers, 60 are pushers while the remaining 861 are tagged as users. The police, upon the direction of Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo, has intensified the barangay visitations (Tapok-Hangyo) and the house-to-house visitations (Toktok Hangyo) which have resulted in the large turnout of surrenderees who were also profiled.
The City has the most number of surrenderers compared to the five other cities and 19 municipalities in Negros Oriental.
Meanwhile, the City has taken bold steps to rid or minimize the influence of illegal drugs in the city hall by directing employees and officials to undergo random drug tests.
Also adopted as a policy is the requirement for job applicants to submit to drug tests before they are hired.
Barangay officials have been tasked to closely monitor the the surrenderers so they can promptly report to the authorities should any of them return to their vice contrary to their signed undertaking.
So far, three of the 30 barangays in the City, namely Poblacion 4, Poblacion 5 and Poblacion 7 have been declared as Drug-Cleared Barangays after they complied with the parameters set forth in Section 6 of Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation No. 3 series of 2017 as evaluated and confirmed by the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency, Mayor Remollo, Department of Interior & Local Government, Department of Social Welfare & Development, and City Health Office.
Two more barangays namely Motong and Cantil-e are currently being evaluated for possible declaration as drug cleared barangays.
Both Mayor Remollo and Supt. Atanacio are working on the target of clearing 50 percent or 15 barangays from illegal drugs before the year ends. (PIO)
