Tagbilaran City gov’t eyeing cash rewards for info on drug pushers

TAGBILARAN CITY — The city government’s drive against illegal drugs is expected to gain headway if its plan to offer cash rewards for information that could lead to the arrest of drug users and peddlers pushes through.

Starting next month, Mayor Dan Lim said the police will collate all information on the activities and whereabouts of drug pushers which a composite police team will gather from anonymous informants.

During his weekly radio program, the Mayor’s Report, over dyRD yesterday, Lim said there are indications that some drug pushers, whom authorities earlier had warned to stop operating in the city, have resumed their illegal trade despite continued police surveillance.

He, however, said the slight increase in illegal drug activities is still far from the alarming level prior to his assumption to his post last year.

"The cash reward system will encourage people to help in the campaign against drug addiction," Lim said, stressing, though, that he is not bent on adopting the style of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

"I want due process," he said. "I prefer to see the victims properly rehabilitated and guided back to the normal stream of society."

Under the reward system, Pl0,000 will be given to an informant who reports a drug user and P20,000 for a drug pusher.

The cash incentive doubles when one reports a family member who is hooked on or peddling illegal drugs.

For information leading to the arrest of a policeman involved in illegal drugs, the cash reward is P50,000.

The bounty doubles to P100,000 when the informant is the husband or wife of a drug user or pusher.

Lim, however, said the cash rewards will be given to informants if their tip-off leads to the arrest of a drug user or pusher and subsequently to the filing of charges in court.

"Informants need not wait for the conviction to claim the rewards," he said.

Lim, meanwhile, admitted that he has received "unpleasant" reports on the conduct of members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the city. He, however, refused to elaborate pending an investigation.