The status of the posh Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa as a drug-cleared barangay is under review following the recent raid of a house in Ayala Alabang Village that resulted in the confiscation of P7.2 million worth of high-grade marijuana.
On Sept. 7, Barangay Ayala Alabang, which includes the exclusive Ayala Alabang Village, was declared as a drug-cleared barangay after undergoing thorough assessments for months.
The certification was signed by officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-National Capital Region, Muntinlupa City government and the Philippine National Police-Muntinlupa.
But in less than a month, the PDEA Central Luzon conducted an operation on Sept. 30 on a house on Agoncillo Street in Ayala Alabang Village and found six kilos of kush or high-grade marijuana. Arrested were live-in partners Joshua
Ramon Jimenez and Sarah Margarita Dominguez.
According to PDEA-NCR regional director Joel Plaza, Barangay Ayala Alabang’s drug-cleared status is under review but it will retain its drug-cleared status for the time being despite the raid.
Dangerous Drugs Board’s Regulation No. 3 issued in 2017 governing barangay drug-clearing program states that “in the event that there are new reports of any illegal drug activities, the status of the concerned cleared barangay shall not be automatically reverted to drug-affected barangay.”
Under the regulation, the barangay is given 30 days to take appropriate action and “failure of the BADAC (Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council) to address the same shall be ground to declare the concerned barangay as ‘drug-affected’ and shall be subjected to barangay drug-clearing operations.’
Failure to comply can also be grounds for the filing of administrative and criminal cases against officials.
The raid is another blow to the efforts of Barangay Ayala Alabang to clear its image.
Barangay Ayala Alabang chairman Ruben Baes told the Manila Bulletin during the awarding of the drug-cleared certification last month that the image of the barangay suffered when shabu laboratories were found by authorities in 2012 and 2016 inside the village.
“All of these are negative to us but again we worked it out with PDEA and DAPCO [Muntinlupa Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Office]. We told them we cannot forever be perceived like criminals. At a certain point in time, you have to clear us,” he said.
Ayala Alabang Village Association (AAVA) president Amador Bacani earlier said that after the raids in the past years, they became stricter in enforcing the single-family residential use rule in the village and the association no longer allows dwellings to be used as staff houses. (Jonathan Hicap)
Source of news and PDEA photo: Manila Bulletin.
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