By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-6 boosted their partnership in the war against illegal drugs here.
This, after PDEA-6 acting director Alex Tablate paid a courtesy call with Police Colonel Henry Biñas, BCPO director, and Police Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, head of City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) at the BCPO headquarters last week.
Biñas said both law enforcement units ensured strengthened coordination and initiatives in the campaign against illegal drugs.
PDEA-6 noted that Bacolod is still one of the areas of concern when it comes to the illegal drug problem in Western Visayas.
Biñas said they have assessed the drug problem here during their meeting and came up with modified ways to urge drug personalities to surrender.
Initially, BCPO will focus their modified “Tokhang” at Barangays 1, 2, and 3, since these villages are identified as seriously drug-affected, the city police director said.
“We’ll focus on these priority areas first to know the effectiveness of our measures,” he added.
Biñas said PDEA will assist the police through the deployment of K9 dogs during the visitation on the houses of identified drug personalities in these villages.
He said the city government and the barangay officials also supported their intervention and also helped in their campaign by providing rice supply to the drug surrenderers.
“So far, the first week was good, with positive response,” he said, as he is hoping it can really help the police in their anti-illegal drug campaign.
Meanwhile, police here and in two Negros provinces seized about P719,300 worth of suspected shabu and arrested 38 persons in separate buy-bust operations from January 21 to January 26.
The operations in Negros Occidental were conducted in the cities of Kabankalan, La Carlota, Victorias, Sagay, Bago, Cadiz, Victorias, Silay, Escalante, and Himamaylan, and in the towns of Murcia, Hinigaran, Valladolid, Pontevedra, and Calatrava.
In Bacolod City, police conducted the operations at Barangays 40, Villamonte, Estefania, Alijis, Punta Taytay, Felisa, and Banago, and in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.
