Mayor Marc Brian Lim said the city government will push through with its plan to build a Balay Silangan reformation center as part of the city’s campaign against illegal drugs.

In an interview on Monday, Lim said the plan to put-up a Balay Silangan has been sidelined because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

“It has long been part of the city’s anti-drug campaign. But definitely, we will try to build one. It is but right that on the part of the anti-drug effort is not just the apprehension of the drug personalities but at the same time, there should really be a facility where those who were addicted to drugs will be reformed. We will also have this one, we are on the same page with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as far as the Balay Silangan is concerned,” he said.

PDEA Pangasinan provincial chief Dexter Asayco, in a separate interview, said the new guideline being implemented now by the agency is that the local government unit (LGU) must have its own Balay Silangan, where all listed drug personalities in the barangay must ‘graduate’ from the reformation program before they will be declared as drug-cleared.

The Balay Silangan program builds temporary shelters for drug offenders with an aim of reforming them into self-sufficient and law-abiding members of society according to PDEA.

The program is reformatory in nature and is an alternative intervention for drug personalities who are not users and are not eligible to undergo medical treatment and rehabilitation in facilities supervised by the Department of Health (DOH).

“In Dagupan City, there are persons categorized as drug personalities. Although they finished the community-based drug rehabilitation program, they need to undergo (the) Balay Silangan program, hence, we really need to establish one for a continuous clearance,” Asayco said.

Dagupan City has two drug-cleared barangays out of total 31.

Barangay Mamalingling and Barangay IV are the first villages in the city declared as drug-cleared. (PNA)