By Aaron Recuenco
The Philippine National Police (PNP) wants to decentralize the campaign against illegal drugs, this time, allowing the drug war to be fought first in the barangay level by allowing local officials and even local residents to craft their own strategy to solve the problem.
Deputy Director General Camilo Cascolan
But Deputy Director General Camilo Cascolan, the chief of the Directorial Staff, said the Community Mobilization Project (CMP) will not only focus on illegal drugs but also on other forms of crime in their areas, including corruption.
“This is a system with community partnership as the focus, that would be able to give progress in the community and be able to remove criminality, illegal drugs and corruption,” Cascolan told the Manila Bulletin in an interview.
Under the CMP, stakeholders in the community such as businessmen, religious groups and even local residents would be mobilized to create their own group and craft ways to address security and safety issues in their respective communities.
Cascolan said the local stakeholders would initiate their own move or it would be the local police commanders who would initiate it by forming advisory groups.
The goal, according to Cascolan, is to for each and every advisory group down to the barangay and even neighborhood and subdivision level to craft their own strategy to combat crime, illegal drugs and even corruption.
“Each of community has its own respective problems, problems which they can solve on their own because they know how it works in their respective communities,” said Cascolan.
In fact, he said each and every people in the barangay knows who among their neighbors are hooked or engaged in selling drugs, engaged in criminal activities and even the corruption issues in their barangays.
Based on the concept, police intervention would only come if the community-based groups would ask for it, or would submit an anti-crime strategy that needs police intervention.
The CMP wass initiated by the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police under Chief Supt. Edward Caranza.