P200M illegal drugs confiscated, destroyed in Bukidnon in 2011 – PDEA
In 2010, PDEA Bukidnon reported that the drug menace has bothered 114 of Bukidnon’s 464 barangays with about 99 villages and two towns “moderately affected,” and two other towns as “seriously affected.[]
”
“This means one in every four barangays in the province are in the PDEA watch list,” a PDEA official who asked not to be named told members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
He said Bukidnon has 12 “slightly affected barangays” or those areas where there are not only users but also the presence of a drug trader; 99 are “moderately affected” or where there are both users and several pushers; and about three are classified “seriously affected, or those “where there is a drug den or clandestine places where prohibited drugs are sold and consumed.”
The data shows there are more barangays that have both users and pushers.
Bukidnon’s 114 barangays comprise about 28 percent of the total number of barangays in the PDEA-10’s drug list of 412 all over the region. Bukidnon had the highest number of “moderately affected barangays” in 2010.[]
The source did not identify all barangays but cited that in Malaybalay among the affected villages considered as “moderately affected” for marijuana and shabu are barangays Casisang, Midlamin, and Barangay 1. He also named Barangay 9 in Malaybalay City as a “seriously affected barangay.”
In Valencia City, he named barangays Bagonta-as, Batangan, Guinuyoran, Laligan, Lumbo, and Lurugan as moderately affected. He named barangays Sinayawan, Sugod, and Vintar as moderately affected for marijuana. He also named Valencia’s Poblacion barangay as a “seriously affected barangay.”
The source said that even as marijuana and shabu are a menace in Bukidnon’s two cities, it is more rampant in Valencia than in Malaybalay.
But he said topping the watch list are the towns of San Fernando and Cabanglasan, which host the biggest plantations of marijuana in Northern Mindanao.
Also in the list of “seriously affected towns” are the municipalities of Baungon and Talakag and the towns of Manolo Fortich and Quezon as “moderately affected towns.”
He clarified then that users in Cagayan de Oro come to Baungon to buy shabu. He told board member and former Baungon mayor Rogelio Lago that pushers are based in the town. He said the trend is that because it is getting more difficult to trade and use drugs in the bigger cities, users and traders do this in rural areas like Baungon where they think enforcement is weak. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
