DAGUPAN CITY, (PNA) — All the 31 barangays of Dagupan City are considered drug-affected with five of these critically affected, according to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB).
Christopher Abrahano, chief of police of Dagupan, identified the critically affected barangays as Bonuan Binloc, Bonuan Gueset, Pantal (particularly Sitio Aling), Barangay II and III (particularly Nueva Street), and Lucao.
All these are currently under watch by the police.
Bonuan Binloc was earlier named by the DDB as the most affected barangay not only in Dagupan City but the whole of Pangasinan.
Abrahano briefed members of the Dagupan City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (DCADAC) which was convened in a meeting called by Mayor Belen Fernandez on Tuesday at City Hall.
“The truth is, under the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Regulation No. 2, series of 2007, it is enough that there’s one user in a barangay to consider the area as drug affected,” Abrahano said.
He said that if this is the parameter, all the barangays in Dagupan are drug affected.
But he added that for purposes of the concentrated anti-drug efforts, “we have identified only five barangays as critically affected,” stressed Abrahano.
Abrahano reported that from January to August this year, the the local police has arrested 91 persons, comprising 74 males and 17 females in separate 43 operations in Dagupan City. The suspects are from 20 to 29 years old.
“We have confiscated so far 225.451 grams of ‘shabu’ and 236.991 grams of marijuana in our operations. This may seem so small but this is the biggest in the region as far as street level pushing is concerned,” said Abrahano.
Tagged by Abrahano as the most abused drugs in Dagupan is methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu and marijuana.
He said shabu is being sold in Dagupan at a lesser price because of adequate supply in the city.
“The stuffs here are cheaper and of better quality and the supply is big. In the whole region, the cheapest drug is from Pangasinan,” he revealed.
Tagged by Abrahano as the major sources of supply of drugs filtering into Pangasinan are Region III, Region IV, and Metro Manila.
Five groups of drug syndicates are operating in the city, said Abrahano said but quickly added that “there could be more.”
Abrahano recommends the implementation of what he called Barangay Drug-Clearing Operations consisting of three phases: pre-operations, operations phase, and post-operation phase.
The pre-operations phase calls for the activation of the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils (BADACs), BADAC Auxiliary Teams and SK in each barangay.