VILLAGES UP FOR REVIEW IN DRIVE VS. DRUGS

Barangays will be evaluated this coming year to see how many can again
be considered drug-free. That way, Cebu City Hall can assess the
illegal drug trade situation in the city.

City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., chairman of the council committee on
public order and safety, said illegal drugs supply has gone down,
driving prices up. Roughly five grams of shabu now costs P80,000,
compared to P40,000 in October.

The October price, he said, was already high, as a "bulto" used to
cost P20,000 before.

He said there is a need for re-validation since the distinction
between a drug pusher and a user has blurred.

Boundaries

(Before it was easy to tell if an area has a drug pusher or not. There would
be a barangay that has pushers, but no users and vice versa. But now, users
call their friends and they have a drug session. What do you call that? It's
still drug pushing but for free)," Pe said.

Dangerous Drugs Board Undersecretary Paul Oaminal early this month
said the authorities are winning the war against illegal drugs in Cebu
City. He described as a sign of desperation the recent shooting of a
civilian agent in Barangay Pasil.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 civilian agent was
shot in the back, while escorting a drug suspect and her mother last
Dec. 5.

Oaminal said Ermita is the "last stronghold" of the drug syndicate in
the city, with the dearth of illegal drugs supply, particularly that
of shabu, causing drug dealers to be more aggressive in fighting back.
He projected that Cebu City will be free of illegal drugs by 2010.

Oaminal said they already received information on personalities who
could have shot the agent and are verifying it. He was thankful that
the City responded positively to their request for financial
assistance. The Cebu City Police Office in 2003 declared a few
barangays as drug-free, something that Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City,
south district) had disputed.

The then House of Representatives committee on dangerous drugs
chairman said that there were already nine million drug users in the
country, a number that dwarfs the 3.4 million official figure of the
PDEA.

Of that figure, Cuenco estimated that Cebu had 10 percent or almost
one million "habitual and occasional" drug users. Cebu's population
was placed at 2.3 million as of 2000.

Pe said it has been years since an effort to document the drug
situation in the city has been made so his office will do so in 2009.

And while he does not share Oaminal's confidence on achieving a
drug-free Cebu City by 2010, he said the problem has abated.

Drug pushing in the mountain barangay of Pulangbato, which has been
considered as the equivalent of Ermita for urban barangays, has declined.

"(The problem is confined to Sitio Dita). Pero kung sa una (Before), on a
scale of one to 10, with 10 as the worst, eight, karon two to three na lang
(nowadays the drug situation is on the scale of two or three)," Pe said.