Reyes said they are just waiting for the construction of a drug testing center in Lamao and the policy of requiring all those applying for a barangay clearance to submit themselves to drug screening will be implemented.
It will be the first of the 236 barangays in Bataan to have such regulation.
The village head said that in the recent barangay assembly, he discussed the matter with residents who he said all agreed. Reyes said he got full support even in his talks with parents and elementary and high school teachers.
He said that he has asked villagers to help in clearing Lamao of illegal drugs and in the process of personally convincing some known users to stop. His campaign against illegal drugs paid off after a known drug pusher/ user last week voluntarily surrendered to him and asked for rehabilitation at a drug center run by the police in Camp Tolentino in Balanga City.
“We are giving our co-villagers the chance to mend their lives away from the drug menace,” Reyes said.
Lamao is one of the most progressive barangays of 11 towns and a city in Bataan.
The village is home to the expansion project of Petron Bataan Refinery, coal power plant, an explosive company and the government arsenal.
The Philippine Ports Authority and the Bureau of Customs have their provincial offices in the village. Cargo ships dock in Lamao while waiting to load and unload fuel products.
It has an air-conditioned barangay hall, health center where indigents get some free medicines and its own firefighting units.
