CAMP BGEN OSCAR M FLORENDO, La Union — The Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing chaired by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency declared at least 41 applicant barangays and two new municipalities — Balungao, Pangasinan and Dingras, Ilocos Norte — as drug-cleared, while four other applicant barangays were categorized as barangays having no presence of active drug personalities.

A validation was also conducted on 471 out of the 474 barangays who were already declared drug-free and the agency said that the said barangays maintained their drug-cleared status while three barangays are subject for revalidation for existence of Drug Personalities as per earlier validation of PRO1-Regional Intelligence Division.

Currently, the PNP-PDEA database has only 15.55 percent or 508 out of the 3,267 barangays in the region declared as drug-affected.

PRO 1 regional director B/Gen. John C Chua said that he has directed his chiefs of police and all line commanders to focus on the clearing of the remaining affected barangays through the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council.