Dad to ask Tomas to restore financial aid to CCUREDD

The Cebu Center for the Ultimate Rehabilitation of Drug Dependents or CCUREDD may again receive financial aid from the city government.

This is because Council Augustus Pe Jr. was satisfied with the financial report submitted by CCUREDD director Pablo Apolonio and is planning to appeal to the mayor to restore the city's financial aid to the drug rehabilitation facility.

Pe reviewed the financial statement submitted by Apolonio from the time he assumed as director in April until November this year. He said that CCUREDD under Apolonio now seems to have proper accounting of its monthly expenses and the funds it has been getting from the national government and from the monthly fee collected from its patients.

It was in February this year that the city government withheld its financial assistance of P566,767 for the facility after its former director, Senior Inspector Eutiquio Toti Raquid Vibal, failed to liquidate the facility's expenses.

The resolution approved by the council, which provided for the financial assistance to CCUREDD, required the facility to submit a liquidation of the funds from the city.

Records at the city accounting office showed that the city government's financial aid to the facility, formerly known as the Drug and Aftercare Center, already amounted to approximately P1.8 million since 2001. It was in 2003 that the city had last granted financial assistance to CCUREDD amounting to P599,506.

The council questioned why, despite the financial aid, CCUREDD under Vibal's leadership, incurred at least P1.3 million in electricity bills, the amount of which was accumulated since 2003.

Pe said the city government will only shoulder the electricity bills under Apolonio's watch, that is starting April this year.

The Cebu City government used to extend P1,500 subsidy to each patient. The amount was increased to P2,000 when in June 1997, a request was made by then mayor Alvin Garcia for an increase of the subsidy to sustain its operations.

Aside from the subsidy coming from the city's coffers, the Dangerous Drugs Board in Manila also allocated a P30 daily meal allowance for each patient.

The rehabilitation center only has a maximum capacity of 180 patients but admissions could reach to an average of 200 patients and a maximum of 250.

Also, there was a raise recently on the monthly fee that each ward has to pay to finance their rehabilitation from P2,500 to P4,000. - Cristina C. Birondo