Panglao and the adjacent area capital city emerged as the top focus of intelligence gathering, considering the pattern of tourism boom with drug menace in town.

Camouflaging the influx of well-meaning tourists, came the influx of drugs-enticed ones.

Intelligence reports had it that some inns even facilitate sale of drugs where users asked for it as casually as ordering food in a restaurant.

There are also classified information that some sari-sari stores are already discreetly selling ready-to-use cut tinfoil sheets which are utilized as drug paraphernalia.

Police intelligence units are also tracking down natives from other provinces—mostly from Cebu and Mindanao—holding base in Panglao island and Tagbilaran City for their illegal drugs trade.

Drug networks with mother units in other provinces have also placed focal persons in towns that served as entry points to Bohol such as Jagna, Tubigon, Getafe, and Clarin, aside from Tagbilaran City.

Drugs dumped in Bohol came from Cebu while other supplies come from Metro Manila, according to the PDEA.

Classified information also had it that competing drug networks had enticed both the financially-challenged and the financially-stable members of the communities to take part.

While the financially-challenged ones had been lured by the lucrative income in selling drugs, the financially-stable ones were negotiated to serve as depositaries for safekeeping of drug money.

Also according to the classified information, the capital for a kilo of shabu is only P50,000 which can translate to proceeds of P11.8 million.

It was former Panglao mayor Benedicto Alcala who admitted in the past that shabu had been rampant in his town that he had to go to the barangays to appeal the cooperation of the households.

With the turn-out of 30,000 drug personalities who yielded to authorities through Oplan Tokhang, a serving of P200 worth of shabu can already translate to P6 million of street sales in two to three days, depending on their frequency of use and the prodding of drug peddlers.

The consumption of some tourists is excluded in the calculation.

IRONIC

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte, who traces roots in Bohol, was surprised at the drug situation in Bohol.

Duterte had the impression that Boholanos are conservative and religious, even producing priests and nuns.

However, the President had traced that the druglord known as Melvin Odicta, who was slain with his wife in Caticlan Port in the province of Aklan, was the number 1 supplier of shabu to Bohol.

Duterte also named the network of recently arrested Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa as the other big-time supplier of shabu to Bohol.

PDEA and the Philippine National Police continued to call on all barangay officials in coastal areas to monitor their borders as there had been reports that drug rings from Cebu continued to transport shabu through motorized fishing boats.

The PNP had also noted that drug affectation is high in coastal barangays adjacent to areas with ports.

The record at the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO) showed that all the 47 towns and one city in Bohol are affected by the drug menace where 1,071 of the 1,109 barangays or 96.6 percent have been affected by the illegal drugs trade.

Meanwhile, the provincial government had moved the launching of the new Center for Drug Education and Counseling (CDEC) from October 7 to October 12.

The counseling facility will be housed at Oak Brook Building of the Lions Club beside the St. Joseph Cathedral, this city.

Its facility will accommodate drug dependents who want to have renewed lives.

The drug dependents still have to undergo assessment and those who have been suffering serious effect from drug abuse will be endorsed to rehabilitation centers outside Bohol.

CDEC will start with one psychiatrist, one medical doctor, two nurses, three psychologists, two social workers, one receptionist, four police officers to assist them, one utility worker; while Lions Club volunteers will also be there to help.

CDEC will provide counselling, psycho-analysis, spiritual interventions, and other services.

The provincial government is also convening an inter-agency or multi-sectoral team who will take charge of the community-based rehabilitation, education and counseling program in Bohol.