Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada confers with police officials on the capital city’s peace and order situation. (From the Facebook Page of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada)
MANILA, Dec. 7 (PNA) – Barangay officials are at the forefront of the never-ending battle against drugs but will also be the first to benefit from the economic gains that a drug-free Manila would bring, Mayor Joseph Estrada has said.
“If our city is drug-free, our economic progress will continue. People will go to us. Many more tourists and investors will come. We will regain our lost status as the Pearl of the Orient. And it’s you, in the barangays, who will greatly benefit from it,” Estrada told a group of barangay chairmen during a meeting at the Manila City Hall Wednesday.
He thus urged the barangays and the police to “unite and bond closer” for the sake of the general public.
The mayor further said that before retiring, he wants the capital city to become the first drug-free city in the country.
“This is not a tall order, especially if all the stakeholders, from the city government down to the barangays, law enforcement, and the private sector do their part. In fact, it would be the best legacy the city government could leave behind for the next generation,” he said.
Estrada reminded the barangay chairmen that City Hall has been augmenting their supplemental budget by the millions to boost their anti-criminality campaign.
Last Monday, some PHP32 million was released for the barangays’ supplemental budget for 2016. This is in addition to the PHP20 million that was approved for release to fund the barangays’ anti-drug campaign last August.
Early this month, PHP24.05 million was released to 38 barangays for their disaster mitigation projects, while PHP200 million was released last month to protect Manila’s 896 barangays from possible terrorist attacks after the deadly bomb explosion in Davao City.