By Chito Chavez With the growing number of young illegal drug offenders in the country, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has strongly called for the creation of a uniform anti-drug advocacy program for Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in the hope of educating them and spreading the ill effects of drug abuse. PDEA Dir Aaron Aquino (Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN) PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, during the recent SK Summit in Bren Guiao Convention Center in the City of San Fernando, said SK’s 10 percent annual budget from the barangay funds can be used for the implementation of an anti-drug advocacy program in their community. Speaking before more than 8,000 youth participants, Aquino urged them to organize less basketball tournaments and beauty pageants and focus more on organizing anti-drug advocacy programs. The uniformed anti-drug advocacy programs for SK will be implemented in coordination with the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Aquino also cited the power of youth leaders in using technology. “SK officials can use the different social media platforms in disseminating correct information to the youth. They can discourage young people from using illegal drugs and educate them on the harmful impact of this industry to an individual and to the society as a whole,” Aquino said. He stressed that youth leaders should be “role models in their respective barangays, municipalities and cities’’ that can be emulated by their peers. “We dream to have a country that is free of the drug menace. We want to put an end to the killings and the criminality brought about by the illegal drug industry. We dream of a nation with proud and rich culture untainted by anomalies, corruption, greed, and crime. We encourage you to share this dream and start putting it into reality,” Aquino said. “The youth is the voice of this nation. So, we appeal to them to maximize such power and help the government change the future of this country. They have the capacity to communicate among their peers, reach out to them and understand them in many ways we cannot as adults, as parents,” he added. The agency earlier expressed grave concern over the involvement of minors in the illegal drug trade in the country. Citing its imminent danger, the PDEA has continuously monitored illegal drug personalities employing minors in their drug trafficking activities. From 2011 to June 15, 2018, the agency said 2,111 minors, aged six to 17 years old were nabbed and rescued for violation of the anti-drug law with the youngest recorded youngster being six years old. “At the onset of the drug war, from July 2016 to June 15, 2018, a total of 1,155 minors were rescued nationwide from the illegal drug trade, compared to the 956 rescued from 2011 to June 2016. They were endorsed to the DSWD offices for custody. Fifty percent of them were 17 years old,” Aquino said. The rescued minors were composed of pushers of dangerous drugs with 959 or 45.43 percent; 725 or 34.34 percent were drug possessors; 277 or 13.12 percent were drug users; and 111 or 5.26 percent were visitors of a drug den. The rest were either cultivators, traffickers, runners, cohorts, drug den employees, or maintainers.