By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Regional Oversight Committee (ROC), through its Deliberation of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program, yesterday declared 206 barangays across the Western Visayas “cleared/officially declared unaffected.”
33 municipalities from across the region took part in the event, which took place at the Punta Villa Resort in Iloilo City’s Arevalo district.
The deliberation includes input from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Philippine National Police in relation to requirements set by the Department of Health and Department of Interior and Local Government.
Last month, the ROC revealed a total 349 Western Visayas barangays were declared “drug-cleared” since the clearing program began last year.
“More than 50 percent na tayo and we hope to increase pa by second semester kasi ang plano natin tatlong regional oversight deliberation pa before the year ends (We’re currently at over 50 percent with hopes to increase the figure by the second semester as we are planning a third regional oversight deliberation before the end of the year),” explained Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Region VI officer-in-charge Alex Tablate. “Comparing to other regions, masabi ko talaga na maganda yung takbo nga barangay drug-clearing natin (Compared to other regions, I believe we are running our barangay drug-clearing operations really well).”
ROC hopes to see all barangays declared “drug-cleared” before 2022, when President Rodrigo Duterte’s term ends./DGB,  WDJ