By LITO RULONACorrespondent
THE Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) yesterday revealed that no barangay chairperson in the city is in its list of people suspected to be involved in illegal drug activities.
Cocpo spokesperson Chief Insp. Mardy Hortillosa II said this over radio station DxCC a day after President Duterte repeated his claim at Camp Evangelista that some 40 percent of barangay officials throughout the country were involved in illegal drugs.
“Wala pa’y barangay chairman nga nabutang sa lista namo. Kung duna man ugali mabutang kini namo mabutang sa high-value target. Wala pa’y opisyal sa barangay nga nasulod sa lista dinhi sa Cagayan de Oro,” he said.
But Cocpo’s list is dependent on the information provided by the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Councils that are run by barangay officials.
Hortillosa however said the police were waiting for a new list to be produced by the Cocpo’s intelligence community.
He said the names in the new list would require validation work.
He said almost all the barangays in the city were affected by the drug menace “pero puro lang slightly affected.”
In a report, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said 70 of the 80 barangays in the city had drug problems and were to be subjected to “drug clearing operations.”