COTABATO CITY: The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has declared two towns in Maguindanao del Norte and North Cotabato as drug-free municipalities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Soccsksargen Region. In North Cotabato, the town of Antipas became the first out of 17 municipalities and a city in the province to be declared drug-free within the Soccsksargen Region. 'I thanked the teamwork and dedication of our village officials, town health office, and anti-drug abuse council for making Antipas a drug-free area,' Antipas Mayor Cris Cadungon said in a radio interview Friday. The mayor's announcement followed Thursday's declaration on the town's status by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC), chaired by PDEA-12 (Soccsksargen), the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Health. The declaration, according to PDEA, is proof that no one uses illegal drugs in town, no drug den, no drug syndicates, no prote ctors, no financiers, no marijuana cultivators, sellers, users, and no manufacturers of illegal drugs. In Maguindanao del Norte, the PDEA-BARMM has also declared Datu Blah Sinsuat town 'drug-free.' The declaration, PDEA-BARMM Regional Director Gil Cesario Castro said, also came after the meeting Thursday of the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing (ROCBDC) that conducted an evaluation and verification process for Datu Blah town. Source: Philippines News Agency