Ex-Judge Calls “Crazy” Drugs-Free Tags in P’gasinan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – They are crazy!

It was a quip by a retired judge and a book author on narcotics upon reading the newspaper headline that only a few towns and cities in Pangasinan remained as "illegal drug infested" and to be freed soon of their tag.

Former Regional Trial Court Judge and Book Author Victor T. Llamas, Jr. not only lambasted the pronouncement from the Police Provincial Office – Pangasinan but challenged for a debate the officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) who claimed that there are only a few towns and cities in Pangasinan being readied to be drug free.

WHO’S CRAZY? -  Retired RTC Judge Victor Llamas (left) and National 

Police Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa.

As of press time only 12 villages are being cleared to be narcotics free in three towns and two cities in the almost three million populated Pangasinan.

These towns are Binmaley, Mangatarem, and San Fabian and the cities of Dagupan and San Carlos.

The PPO recently declared that it is optimistic to make these local government units dangerous drugs free in December. 

“They are crazy. Ganoon gawin natin, e random test natin ang mga users. Tingnan mo o anong gustong sabihin na drug free, that’s crazy!”

He said despite those killings of those suspected sellers of the illegal substance, other batches of pushers would replace those killed.

“Drug dependence is like gravity,” he stressed on human nature and the market for illegal drugs in the community.

He cited if the officials of the PNP and PDEA acquiesce to his dare he would expose that they are wrong on their drug-free declaration.

He said he was a member of the debating team when he was studying his law degree at Ateneo de Manila.

Llamas authored “Drugs, the Law, DU30 and You” and the "best seller" “To Catch A Liar” being sold at bookstores all over the country.

He practiced law for 27 years until his appointment as a judge in the Regional Trial Court in Pangasinan. He was a recipient of an award as the Most Outstanding Regional Trial Court’s Judge in the Philippines in 1988.

Meantime, of the 1,259 villages declared by the Police Provincial Office- Pangasinan as drugs free, only 428  barangays (villages) or 33 percent are narcotics-free according to the PDEA-Region 1.

Bismarck Bengwayan, PDEA Spokesman in Region 1, cited that the delay in the drugs free tagging as drug free the 1,259 villages because of the ticklish documents where the Agency’s personnel pinpoint the whereabouts and status of the illegal drug personalities.

This validation, Bengwayan cited, includes a certification from the Anti-Drug Advisory Councils in the villages, towns, and cities attesting that the sellers and buyers who subjected themselves to the police have undergone rehabilitation treatment in a medical facility.