City launches anti-drugs drive

Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella yesterday volunteered to be the first official willing to undergo drug test to assure city residents that he has nothing to fear from the medical test.

He also advised Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr., director general of the Philippine Enforcement Agency, that the representatives of the barangays in yesterday’s Barangay Drug Clearing Operation were as determined as members of the city in ridding the city of drugs.

Aside from Councilor El Cid Familiaran, Councilor Carlo Jose Lopez and Claudio Puentevella were also present at the seminar.

Incidentally, Cacdac congratulated Bacolod City for having been honored again for having posted a record high in the arrest and apprehension of drug distributors.

Puentevella stressed that he is against the drug racket because just one case in a family usually leads to the destruction of an entire family.

“I have seen it many times. How many lives had been lost because a family member fell victim to substance abuse,” said Puentevella.

The participants did not only vow to help the PDEA pinpoint who the drug peddlers are in their respective barangays, but also to help the government on prevention education.

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Councilor Lopez yesterday stressed that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has sent to Bacolod two of its agents to determine how the city government has made use of the 25-knot fishing boat it had donated to the city.

Under the MOA, Lopez said, there is a provision that the city must make use of the boat to help in the campaign to stop illegal fishing methods and to apprehend those involved.

But, as of Saturday, Lopez said, these investigators found the ship beside the carriage, untouched and unused.

I should know that one of the provisions of the MOA is that the city should provide it with fuel and use it to catch illegal fishers. In short, according to Lopez, it must not be used solely for efficiency purposes.

However, he said he is willing to file a resolution in the Sangguniang Panglungsod to insure that the boat should not be left bereft of what is needed for it to be used effectively in the Bantay Dagat campaign against illegal fishers.

“There are a lot of trawlers and other illegal steamers in the coast of the Guimaras Strait, he said, teeming with illegal fishers who should be discouraged from continuing with their destructive activities that will eventually lead to the destruction of the fish supply of Bacolod,” Lopez added.

The present budget, he said, does not have any allocation for the fuel use of the ship. He said there is a danger that the BFAR may rescind its donation and recover the ship from the city government, he added.

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Puentevella yesterday appealed to the LUWA to just maintain their sixth director to the Baciwa.

They should also keep J. Carbon as general manager of the water agency because she has done a “wonderful job” of handling the funds of the agency.

Earlier, he had asked the Baciwa board to take over the water agency because of the problem that has beset it for several weeks.

The anti-Carbon directors – Lawrence Villanueva, Lorenzo Dilag, and Marichi Ramos, have suspended Carbon for 30 days. But, as pointed out by Dilag, Carbon should have lost her post several years ago. But lawyer Eric Reyes said she need not worry because she can return to the same post after 30 days.

The Baciwa Union, however, had staged a protest rally for Carbon. They are laboring to have her remain as head of the Baciwa.*

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