• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A non-violent, all-out war against illegal drugs will soon be declared by Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez in highly urbanized Bacolod City.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has reported that only 21, or 34.43 percent, of 61 barangays in Bacolod City as drug cleared.
Drugs are our major problem and we have to go on an all-out war, Benitez told reporters on Thursday. He, however, stressed that “violence is not the answer,” to the proliferation of illegal drugs.
Controversial police officer Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, who was assigned at the Bacolod City Police Office during the administration of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, claimed during a recent House of Representatives quad committee hearing, that Bacolod City is the source of shabu in Iloilo City.
PCol. Joeresty Coronica, BCPO director, strongly denied the claims of Espenido, stressing that there is no shabu laboratory in Bacolod City.
Last month, 46 drug personalities were arrested in Bacolod City, which led to the confiscation of P8.1 million worth of suspected shabu, according to a report of the Police Regional Office.
On the other hand, 115 drug peddlers have been accounted for by the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office in the same period.*
