CEBU CITY – Guerrilla warfare is the key to winning the battle against the proliferation of illegal drugs. This is the position taken by Dangerous Drugs Board Undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal in discussing the DDB’s anti-drug campaign against the evils of drugs proliferating in more and more barangays in the country.

Oaminal said that as the number of barangays affected by drugs increases, the need for counter-insurgency type of campaign will be instrumental in winning the hearts of the populace and defeating the evils of drugs.

As the nation is set to observe the Drugs Abuse Prevention and Control Week November 16 to 20, Oaminal said Local Government Units and other government agencies must stop resorting to old ways of increasing awareness and drawing attention to the issue of drug abuse with “grandiose rallies and seminars,” and adopt, instead, more unconventional strategies in attacking the problem.

“Government must now go to where the problem is, meaning lectures and pulong-pulong (community meetings) must be conducted in areas where there are drug users and pushers and personally convince them to stop using drugs. This is the only way by which we’ll hit the jugular veins of the syndicate. Stop the users from using drugs, and the best way is talking directly to the users, their families and neighborhood,” said Oaminal.

This year’s observance carries the theme “Kilos Pamayanan! Sa droga patuloy na lumaban (Community action; the war against drugs continue.”

Oaminal said guerilla warfare type of anti-drug campaign is low maintenance yet effective because it doesn’t require spending much for expensive venues, sound systems and food for the participants andspeakers.

“The battlefield in the war against drugs is the barangays, puroks, sitios, families and person-to-person. Thus you don’t solve it by talking only to the non-users, professional groups and responsible students and civic groups but to the very source of the problem, the users and pushers and those youth at risk of becoming drug users,” he told Manila Bulletin.

Oaminal hailed the Cebu City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (CADAC) which he said should be emulated by other local government units (LGUs) in the country. Headed by Councilor Jun Pe, the CADAC will conduct anti-drug abuse lectures starting November 3 to 30 chapel-by-chapel in identified sitios seriously affected or affected barangays nightly.

With this type of campaign, he said, there will be no excuse for high maintenance expenses and expensive budgets, as the sole weapon needed is the “sincerity and patriotism” of anti-drug campaigners.