PRO7 Tops in War Against Illegal Drugs

With almost 50,000 houses visited in just two months resulting to 72,297 surrenderees in Central Visayas, this catapulted the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) as the top performer in the continuing war against illegal drugs among regional police offices nationwide.

PRO-7 Regional Director C/Supt. Noli Taliño attributed the outstanding performance to the policemen especially in the police stations that are continually implementing the anti-drug program.

“We need to double time or even triple time our efforts against illegal drugs in order to beat the target deadline of six months made by our President. We cannot afford to relax as our campaign is continuing” said Taliño during the recent forum of the “Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis” (TSIP) attended by tri-media.

Of the 72,297 drug personalities that voluntarily appeared in the different police stations regionwide, 67,312 were users and 4,985 were pushers.

Of the total number, 92 percent were male and 1.96 percent was accounted for females while 5.73 percent were minors.

As for gender classification for users, majority were males at 86.6 percent while females were around 10 percent and 3.28 percent were minors.

For the Project Double Barrel or the accomplishments on anti-illegal drugs, there were 998 operations conducted from the period July 1 to August 31 that resulted to the arres of 1,475 persons.

Volume of shabu confiscated was 3,539.31 grams with estimated value at P41,763,858 while cases filed reached 1,636.

From August 1 to September 2, 89 persons have been killed during legitimate operations in the continuing war against illegal drugs while 99 persons involved in drug trade were killed by unknown assailants.

Taliño said those people behind the illegal drugs trade are now killing each other in response to the 99 persons who were killed by unidentified gunmen.

The PRO-7 director stressed that the police do not tolerate summary executions and that investigations are underway for such cases amid public concern over summary killings. (rmn/fcr/PIA7)