The Elections and Bohol's First Drug Rehab Center

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

If more young people will keep listening to politicians during this campaign season, chances are they will be driven to drug addiction as a way out of their confusion and high level of stress. I have not seen in my adult life such low quality in the substance and content of political discourse and the crudeness of behavior that politicians show in a national election.

 I am forever thankful that when I was growing up in my native Quezon, I spent time in political rallies listening to the speeches of distinguished personalities you would not hesitate to call as statesmen. In those days, you could spend hours in the town’s plaza listening to the likes of Claro M. Recto, Jovito Salonga, Lorenzo Tanada, Jose Wright Diokno, to name a few.

Listening to them was to get basic education on the country’s problems and what each one could do to solve them. More importantly, the candidates during that period would clarify their party’s stand about the problems before they would say what each one intended to do taking into account his or her background and experience.

If I were among the young today, what would I learn from these national candidates? During these past few months, I have been treated to quite a spectacle of politicians many of whom could not qualify as role models for the young. I need not enumerate here examples of bad behavior among those aspiring for the country’s top-level leadership posts.

Instead of being inspired to participate in the country’s so-called democratic exercise, I would walk away from these political debates and town hall meetings about to be convinced the country has indeed gone to the dogs because the country’s economic and political elites have coopted as usual the democratic process as a version of the clash of clans and interest groups. And these politicians, except for a few, rival some characters viewed each night for hours in this teleserye nation.

In a sense, it’s fortunate that most young people these days are more preoccupied with how they look in their selfies and are into narcissistic preoccupations to bother about the charade going on around them.

I think most of them are not serious at all about the political circus happening around them but one day, when economic and social problems hit their family and community due to bad policies, and corruption and sheer indifference to the public welfare continue to characterize public governance as an inevitable consequence, some of these young people will seek refuge in the false security provided by illicit drugs. And that’s how bad politics connects to drug addiction among the youth and ultimately to family and social welfare.

It’s almost surreal that politicians talk more about killing pushers and even drug addicts but nobody at national and subnational level talks about rehabilitation especially for the drug abuse victims among the young. The drug abuse problem is practically decimating the so-called hope of the Fatherland and all what the candidates can offer are bullets to address this problem. You would think we have been bombed to the Stone Age by the quality of our response to this modern-day problem!

Most of the current political discourse seems to focus more on killing drug abuse victims and drug pushers rather than intensifying efforts to build drug rehabilitation centers. Perhaps the reason is that it is more dramatic to use the gun and violate human rights than to follow a more Christian and humanistic approach. Quite unbelievable in a Christian country and one reputed to have high literacy rate, which indicates exposure to progressive ideas on how to approach the drug abuse problem now pervasive in practically all the country’s barangays.

Against this grim backdrop, we must appreciate the efforts of some individuals and groups who support the FARM It Works Balay Kahayag (FITWBK) Chemical Dependency Center, which has been dubbed for easy recall as Bohol Drug Rehab Center. As some people know, it has been operating without fanfare in Baclayon, Bohol since last November powered with the technical expertise and the passion to help by our partners – the Family and Recovery Management (FARM) drug rehab center in Minglanilla, Cebu and It Works Chemical Dependency Treatment Center of Ozamis City in Misamis Occidental.    

These facilities are owned and managed respectively by Jimmy Clemente and Rene Francisco who each has had almost more than two decades of experience in this serious business of rehabilitating what they term as “lost souls.” Both are in the Board of Trustees of the SEC-registered entity.  Rene serves as Chief Executive Officer while Jimmy is the Financial Comptroller.

They have pooled their financial and staff resources together to establish the first drug rehabilitation center in a province where 70% of crimes reported are drug-related. Police records and news reports validate this fact supported by media coverage of buy-bust operations and, in some cases, shooting of alleged drug pushers.

Fr. Val Pinlac, head of the Vatican-funded Bohol Rebuilding and Rehabilitation Project (BRRP) based at the Diocese of Tagbilaran, was the first to visit the facility. Against protocol, he was allowed to enter the main building and talked with the clients, who welcomed him warmly. He was so touched by this that he accepted the invitation to serve as spiritual director. Since his first visit, he has been coming regularly to say Mass on Sunday. Last Holy Week, he did the way of the Cross with the clients and even did the ritual washing of Apostles’ feet with them.

On Sunday, after Mass, he finds time to talk with his newly-found flock. He has been given an inventory of what else are needed in the center. He started by donating two tennis tables as part of the athletic program for the clients. He linked us to an international NGO, For a Better Tomorrow (FBT), based in the US and with his endorsement, Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF) submitted a proposal to support the Center.

The proposal seeks to increase the facility’s current capacity from 30 to 50 clients to accommodate the growing number of requests for admission. This process will take long because it will involve negotiations with an international donor. Meanwhile, Fr. Val Pinlac, taught of something unique – offering personal gifts to him on sale with the proceeds to go the Center to create a fund that will assist drug abuse victims from confirmed indigent families to have access to the center’s treatment services.

The undertaking was named Souvenirs and Gifts for a cause. The first in what has been planned as a series of fund raising activities was held last Saturday, 23 April, at the Habhaban sa Baluarte area in Poblacion, Baclayon. 

Aside from Fr. Val Pinlac, those who donated gifts to be sold during this activity, which also featured dinner for a cause, were Dr. Carrie Tharan, retired Dean of Miriam College who is a BLDF volunteer, now a Baclayon resident; Tessie Gilay-Jugos, a nurse in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, who sent signature handbags for sale; Rene Francisco and Marit Meier, Dutch volunteer who is project officer of the Hubs and Spokes Community Bikes Rental Project implemented jointly by the Baclayon LGU, the Alternative Learning System-DepEd, and BLDF.

The partial list of those who bought gifts with the cash going to the rehab center includes: Evelyn Buenafe; Telly Ocampo, Adoracion Penales, Fr. Vengie Penales, Fr. Salon Florenosos, Dr. Lilia Hernandez, Dr. Proceso Castil, and Angie Pueblo. Part of the proceeds from sales of tickets for the dinner will be fund of the assistance fund for the center.

Baclayon Mayor Alvin Uy authorized the use of the LGU’s sound system, tables and chairs. Additional tables were provided by residents Jessie and Tessie Pagdato. Some deacons and students from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, as well as Rene Francisco, his wife Shandy and the Baclayon rehab team, joined hands to provide logistics and administrative support to ensure the success of the activity.

During this activity, we had interesting discussion with some guests such as Dr. Hernandez, Lourdes Aparicio, Maita Magdoza, a clinical psychologist, and other friends of Fr. Val on how they could get involved in activities aimed at supporting Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation venture.

We continue to receive pledges from friends both outside and inside our Facebook network. Someone says he will donate a sack of rice. A donor who prefers to be anonymous will give Php 10,000 in two installments. Another donor says she will give USD 50 dollars for each donation we receive. A friend of my son, Gabe, pledged he would give Php 25,000 equivalent to the monthly fee of a client.

Al Palomar, a co-alumnus at the Quezon Provincial High School in Lucena City who lives in Oklahoma, USA, sent USD 1,000 through Alumni Association President, General Charlemagne Alejandrino, for administrative support to our NGO, Bohol Local Development Foundation, in advocacy activities related to supporting the drug rehab center.

Our classmate, Milwida Sevilla-Reyes, is selling copies of the book we co-authored, Old Warrior’s Poems and the Bohol Quake Assistance Story, with proceeds to support the center. A colleague from the now defunct UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC) in Bool, Tagbilararan donated USD 800 for the use of the successor NGO, BLDF, in continuing advocacy for the drug rehab center and livelihood.

My close relatives, Tita Eden Mante and Tito Marc Melo, who are based in New Jersey, gave money as support to the center during Tita Eden’s recent visit. Tita Eden is married to Tito Jun of Tubion. Small world indeed!

We are profoundly touched by these concrete expressions of support for a project that friends used to say, prior to November last year, it would be impossible to do. Now it’s there, still a facility limited in scope and may have only a negligible impact vis-à-vis the monster of a problem we are trying to address, taking into account the growing number of drug abuse victims that seem to increase by leaps and bound from month to month. But it’s there which now takes care of around 28 clients, almost at full capacity, and we must prove that indeed it’s better to rehab them than to spray them with bullets.

Kindly pray that we succeed in this mission with your continuing support.

All of us who have become part of this project have seen the sacrifices of the young but experienced staff who guide the healing process, the pain and sufferings of parents who ride in tricycles to bring their afflicted family members and who visit the center to bring clothes and other provisions, the transformation of young people from a state of pained helplessness on the initial days and the glow in their faces as hope is regained and recovery is getting assured from day to day and the joy that glimmers on a mother’s face as the saving of souls is sure to happen, as sure as the sunset when a new day begins.

We next think about our politicians, how most of them behave and how they remain quiet about the need for drug rehabilitation centers, and how they will shoot drug abuse victims as though they are wild boars – and we weep for our country and people. But we will persevere in this journey.

You are welcome to be part of this journey. For queries, call or text Ms. Daidee Padron – Mobile: 0915  794  1175; 0908 860 1018.  Or Email: daideepadron@gmail.com

NMP/28 April 2016/6.08 p.m.