31 high value drug personalities hunted in Baguio
BAGUIO CITY -- Thirty-one drug personalities tagged as high value targets in regional and city levels are being hunted by authorities led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in this city.
Col. Francisco Bulwayan, city director of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), alerted the police to conduct a massive operation to neutralize the drug personalities.
Col. Bulyawan said that five out of 10 regional high value drug personalities are continuing their illegal drug trade in the city.
According to Bulwayan, seven of the drug personalities listed under the PDEA watch list are also present in some drug-affected barangays in addition to the six city high value targets and some street level drug personalities.
He said relentless anti-drug operations are being conducted against regional, city and street level drug personalities as part of the police's supply and demand reduction campaign.
Of the city's 128 barangays, only 11 are undergoing drug clearing due to the presence of drug personalities operating in these areas.
The police official said that of the 11 drug-affected barangays, seven have already been submitted for drug-clearing while four barangays are still undergoing validation.
However, two barangays are still under monitoring due to the continued presence of drug personalities.
During the start of the aggressive anti-drug operations in 2016, there were about 113 drug-affected barangays in the city while only four barangays were found to be unaffected by drugs since the start of the campaign.
Moreover, there are some 2,554 drug personalities who opted to go back to the fold of the law at that time.
Bulwayan said that of the said number, 718 underwent the required six-month community-based rehabilitation program, 253 are now undergoing the same program while 64 dropped out due to alleged relapse, among other reasons.
He assured that police personnel and anti-narcotics agents are closely monitoring the activities of the remaining drug personalities who either went out of the city or are still in their barangays to prevent them from going back to their illegal drug trade.