Only “high-risk” drug surrenderers from Cebu will find themselves in Bohol next year if plans of the Department of Health (DOH) to build the region’s drug rehabilitation site in Carmen town, Bohol, push through.
According to the Cebu Provincial Anti-Illegal Drug Office (CPADAO), most of the drug surrenderers will be made to avail of community-based treatment programs instead as Cebu suffers from a lack of government-run rehabilitation facilities.
Those considered “high-risk” or needing formal rehabilitation treatment will be sent to a formal facility, said CPADAO head Ivy Durano-Meca.
Meca estimates that of the 35,000 surrenderers in the province, around 10% are considered high-risk. The rest, she said, could be placed under a community-based treatment program.
“It’s more accessible especially the majority of surrenderers are not those high-risk. Out of 100, there are only 10% that is high risk,” Meca said.
“Based on our department heads’ planning, it was suggested by everyone that the province will really focus on the community-based treatment program so that we can institutionalize it,” said Meca on the remaining 80-90% of drug surrenderers who are considered as “low risk”.
At present, Cebu has four recorded rehabilitation centers; however, only two are government-owned.
One is the DOH-operated 150-person capacity, Argao Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in southern Cebu which caters to male patients; while the other is the Cebu Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Women located in Consolacion, northern Cebu which has a capacity of 100-150 persons.
The Dangerous Drugs Board also lists two rehab centers operated by non-government organizations: the House of Hope in Lapu-Lapu City and the North General Hospital Chemical Dependent’s Control and Rehab Center in Talamban.
According to Meca, if additional structures will be built in the rehabilitation facilities in Argao and Consolacion, the 10% of the surrenderers who will have to be sent to the proposed rehabilitation center in Bohol will be accommodated.
Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial earlier announced that Carmen, Bohol has been identified as the possible site for the region’s rehabilitation center and mega-treatment facility which the DOH planned to build next year.
San Francisco
Meanwhile, an official of a town in Camotes Islands, San Francisco Mayor Aly Arquillano planned to seek the help the provincial capitol to build a drug rehabilitation center there.
Arquillano also told reporters on Thursday that as part of their support for the Philippine National Police (PNP), the town has allocated P1 million for anti-drug programs.
Arquillano was satisfied with the performance of the town’s new police chief.
Earlier last week, PNP regional office relieved the police chiefs in the towns of San Francisco, Pilar, Tudela and Poro, all of Camotes Islands, due to their poor performance on the drug war.