Manila, March 21 -- Nearly half of the 4,951 barangays in Western Visayas have either been certified as drug-cleared or drug-unaffected by the Regional Oversight Committee (ROC) since 2018 until March this year, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) here.
Alex M. Tablate, officer-in-charge of PDEA Western Visayas, said in a phone interview on Thursday that as of March 20, the ROC has already certified 2,120 either as drug-cleared or drug-unaffected.
This year alone, 283 barangays were certified as of end of January 31.
On March 19, he said that 522 barangays again underwent the process of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program (BDCP) and only 393 passed, out of which, 252 were certified as drug cleared while 141 were cer...