Detoxifying the millions of drug dependents

In the 2017 national budget, the province of Cebu was allocated around P66 million to upgrade its existing rehab facilities. This fund is part of the P570 million the Department of Health (DOH) has allocated to construct, upgrade, expand, and repair 16 public TRCs across the country in support of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.

Unfortunately, Cebu Province is not included in the budget for new public rehab facilities. The existing rehab facility for Cebu Province is in the town of Argao, some 60 kilometers south of Cebu City, which has been allocated a budget of P54.08 million while P11.7 million has been earmarked for another center in Cebu City. Dr. Alice Utlang, is the head of the Cebu City Office of Substance Abuse and Prevention (COSAP).

Ivy Durano-Meca, director at the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office, welcomed the development, saying the Argao TRC, the only DOH-accredited and government-owned rehabilitation center in Cebu province, needs financial assistance for its upgrade. Incidentally, there is a parish-based drug rehabilitation done under the auspices of the Cebu Archdiocese under my good friend, Fr. Carmelo O. Diola of the Dilaab Foundation.

I would like to say it here that they too need a lot of funding because many drug addicts would rather go to their respective parish centers for their rehabilitation. Bringing drug rehabilitation down to the parish level will certainly help a lot in the fight against drug abuse. Best of all, having it on a parish level means that we can easily distribute the number of drug dependents to all participating parishes all over the province.

We too are serious in the effort by Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte to “Detoxify the Philippines” from the illegal drug menace, now that we know that there are at least three million Filipinos hooked on illegal drugs. Indeed under the six years of the Aquino Regime, the Philippines has become a narco state. From the way we all learned from both the Congressional and Senate hearing on the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), we can see the magnitude of the drug menace and the huge monies involved in this illicit drug business that not only destroyed our youth who use those drugs, but corrupted many officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) even in the highest positions especially in all the provinces of the country. We only saw what it did in Albuera, Leyte.

A couple of years ago my good friend, Atty. Paul Oaminal, former Undersecretary of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and currently Cebu City Anti-Drug Council (CCAD) chair challenged me to look into all the State of the Nation Addresses (SONA) of then President Aquino and check if he even mentioned issues on the drug problem? A rapid search showed that when Pres. PNoy talks about the illegal drug trade, he lumps it with other criminalities like carnapping and kidnapping. Call it a sin of omission if you wish, but I dare say that in the last six-years and with the help of top PNP officials as mentioned already by Pres. Duterte, the illegal drug trade flourished to new heights and we are now paying for Pres. PNoy’s sins of omission!

This new P570 million funding will be spent entirely to build up the infrastructures of government-run residential TRCs, with the aim of enabling them to accommodate a larger number of users. It will be sourced from the budget for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP). Aside from Argao and Cebu City facilities, other TRCs that will get a share of the funding are those in Bicutan, Taguig City (P51.31 million); San Fernando, La Union (P15.00 million); Bauko, Mountain Province (P65.00 million).

Then there is the one in Ilagan, Isabela (P20.26 million); Pilar, Bataan (P20.02 million); Pampanga (P60.00 million); San Fernando, Camarines Sur (P24.20 million); Pototan, Iloilo (P8.25 million); Dulag, Leyte (P4.19 million); Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte (P20.00 million); Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay (P20.00 million); Cagayan de Oro City (P11.00 million); and Davao City (P34.99 million, for two centers). Meanwhile, Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale plan to appeal to DOH for new rehabilitation facilities as there are more than 37,000 surrenderees in the Province of Cebu.

Meanwhile in Nueva Ecija the other day, Pres. Duterte inaugurated a Mega Drug Rehabilitation Center donated by Chinese Real Estate Billionaire Huang Rulun, which can hold at least 10,000 drug dependents. It occupies a land area of 11 hectares and has a total construction space of 60,000 square meters with 172 building units, making it the first large scale drug rehabilitation center in the country. He donated P1.4 billion to build two rehab centers.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said the facility would contribute significantly to the effort to curb the drug menace. Indeed we are on our way in winning the war against Illegal Drugs and killing drug pushers or users is not the right way, but rehabilitating them is the proper way. But the bigger challenge will come after these drug dependents will be returned back to society.

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