Authorities are again facing a rising drug trade in the region driven by poverty. Licking the drug menace considerably was one of the biggest achievements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Eastern Visayas when communities in Eastern Visayas were declared drug free.
After achieving 99.44 percent or at least 2,707 drug-free villages in region 8, drug related cases seem to be picking up anew in the remaining months of 2022.
Recently, a poor fish vendor in Calbayog City was arrested and would be spending his Christmas behind bars after being collared by Calbayog City Police at Samar Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit on December 13.
Manuel Capistrano, also known as Chula, was nabbed in a buy bust operation with four heat- sealed transparent plastic sachets containing white crystalline substance believed to be shabu and with P164 cash confiscated from him.
Capistrano admitted his involvement in the trade but defended that it was merely because he was left with little to no choice.
Alone after separating with his wife, the suspect said he needed the money from the trade to finance his prescription medicines or maintenance which he can barely afford with his income as a vendor.
Though unacceptable for many, Capistrano is not the only individual from Eastern Visayas who admits to dabbling in illegal drug trade in order to survive.
Earlier, Ranie Advincula, a firewood vendor from Tolosa was also arrested for selling shabu to sustain his family’s needs.
Another is Elvira Dela Cruz, a former pusher who was among the first batch who finished the Community Based Drug Rehabilitation Program (CDBRP) of the Local Government Unit of Catbalogan City was arrested last month after reverting to her old ways.
In an interview, Dela Cruz said she was forced to return to the illegal drug trade to support her needs as she is unemployed.
With more and more people engaging in illegal drugs to survive and fund their necessities, it is alarming to think that more of these cases may continue increasing in the months ahead.
In fact, the Philippine Statistics Office disclosed that in 2021, the poverty incidence in Eastern Visayas was at 28.9 percent which puts the region in the fifth place with the highest poverty incidence in the country.
This means that around 29 in every 100 individuals in the region are poor whose incomes were not sufficient to buy minimum basic and non-food needs.
In addition, the region’s inflation rate (IR) was at 7.9 percent in November 2022, the highest recorded for the past four years.
The uptrend in the regional rate in November 2022 was due to the higher prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages.
PSA further stated that the inflation rate for the food index was higher at 9.7 percent in November 2022 from 8.1 percent the previous month.
While this appears to be a burden for the people of Eastern Visayas, PSA released a fairly good news with the region’s Employment Rate (ER) in July 2022 rising to 95.5 percent which translates to 2.01 million employed persons out of the 2.11 million persons in the labor force.
This was also higher by 2.1 percentage points compared with the 93.4 percent ER in July 2021.
If employment rates in the region would continue rising and workers are paid enough to compensate for the increasing prices of commodities, this may help mitigate the possibility of more individuals turning to illegal drugs trade for their financial needs.