By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Around 18 recently-surrendered drug suspects will receive assistance from Barangay Tangub.

Barangay Tangub Captain Noli Villarosa said the surrendered drug personalities will undergo drug testing as part of their monitoring and will receive monthly assistance.

He said, as part of their monitoring, they will visit the suspects’ homes to check their condition and invite them to the barangay hall, where, for documentation purposes, barangay officials take their mobile phone numbers.

Villarosa added, the meeting is also a way of finding a suitable livelihood.

“They need to feel that they are being well-taken cared off by the barangay,” the barangay captain said. “Some of them are not really bad people but were only led astray because of drugs.”

Villarosa also said they are presently trying to identify other drug suspects, whom they will convince to surrender.

For serious drug dependents, they will receive a recommendation from the barangay to undergo rehabilitation either in Cebu, Iloilo, or another place of their choosing./DGB, WDJ