Bogo City gives 240 drug surrenderers a chance to become ‘Drug Warriors’

Volunteers, who make up the Bogo City’s “Drug Warriors,” take their oath at the Bogo Sports Complex (Facebook/Noli Escosio Noble).

BOGO City recruited yesterday 240 drug surrenderers to become part of the more than 500 “Drug Warriors” of the city, who would help eradicate illegal drugs in this northern city of Cebu province.

Bogo City Vice Mayor Maria Cielo “Mayel” Martinez said that this initiative is the fruit of the city’s efforts to institutionalize a well-crafted program to rehabilitate all the drug surrenderers in their locality.

The “Drug Warriors” are volunteers made up of drug surrenderers and local residents of the city’s 201 sitios and 29 barangays.

“The concept of this initiative is for the common citizens and the drug surrenderers to work together in eliminating illegal drugs and lessen its effects to the community and its people. The Drug Warriors will help each other in the implementation of the programs laid out by the government,” Martinez said in a phone interview yesterday.

The Drug Warriors will ensure that these programs will be enforced in the barangay level. Martinez said that the city’s campaign against illegal drugs has been crafted by all the sectors in the city namely the government agencies, the city council, the religious sector, the LGUs, and the drug surrenderers themselves.

“We want the drug surrenders to know that if they are serious about surrendering themselves to the government, then the government will also help them have a second chance and be integrated back to the community,” said Martinez.

According to the records of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bogo City has a total of 1,381 drug surrenderers. “For them to be able to participate in our rehabilitation programs, we required the surrenderers to undergo an assessment to categorize them according to the severity of their cases. This way,we can provide them the programs tailored to their needs,” Martinez said.

A total of 503 drug dependents submitted themselves to the assessment. Of this count, 63 percent or 317 of them had been confirmed to have severe cases of drug dependence.

The 240 drug surrenderers who volunteered to be Bogo City’s “Drug Warriors” took their oath yesterday.

“We will put these surrenderers under observation for three months. Within that period, they will undergo rehabilitation programs and drug tests until they recover from drug dependence,” Martinez said.