For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey
NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS
As everyone knows, the
number of so-called surrenderees, a term adapted widely by the media to refer
to drug users who signed with government and police authorities not to use illegal
chemical substances again, soared to staggering proportion early in the week
all over the country. In Bohol alone, the number reported increased from something
around 3,000 to 4,600 during the weekend and then to 6,000 climbing to 9,000 at
the start of this week.
My initial response was
to go find a cave elsewhere and bring my family to hole in there until the imagined
holocaust trips over. When I look around, however, in-between reading Facebook
posts, I realized there was no panic at all about the situation.
Everything appears
normal. Facebook reflects, at least as far our network is concerned, shown on
public mode, that people are mostly having fun, celebrating birthdays and
anniversaries, feasting and cavorting on the white-sand beach, admiring sunsets
and the vast expanse of the sea around us as though seeing these natural
wonders for the first time, enjoying life to the hilt despite the grim
possibility of a crime rise in our midst as a result of untreated mental
condition arising from repeated drug use.
My two sons, Gabe
and Odoni, both in their twenties, would come home past midnight as usual and I
suppose, despite all these drug buy-bust operations ending up in quite gory
bloody scenes in the bush, crowded bus, busy street and all, everything is as
normal as can be in our beloved Bohol. Hence, more blessings, oh Lord. Everything
is A-OK, bless our leaders in all sectors, government and non-government that
because of their deafening silence about it all, everything must be alright
under the new regime.
In the popular
imagination, at least, everything is just OK and so why bother. Enjoy your beer
and make San Miguel richer and happier! I must be in the wrong planet, worrying
about it all. Anyway, for whatever it is worth, I am sharing some advice from
friends, old and newly-found ones, on what could be a good strategy to cope
with a situation that we have 9,000 drug users outside some form of a
rehabilitation or counselling process.
And so here it is, how
a personal quest unfolded during the week which I am sharing not for any
dramatic value (read: gossip!) but to raise key issues that could somehow result
in a response to a potentially risky situation which can scar us for life
emotionally and otherwise.
13 July, Sunday. We
had our Action Group Meeting (AGM) with our cluster of brods and sis from the
organization I joined in 2015, the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and
Professionals (BCBP) held at Crescencia Café at my in-laws’ place in Baclayon.
As is the practice during such small-group meetings, we chose a passage from
the Bible, pick up a phase and then individually share our thoughts with the
other group members.
The assigned passage
for this AGM was Luke 10:25-37, a popular one, known by many cathechists and
Bible Study Groups the world over as “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.”
5.05 a.m. There was a loud bang followed by
total darkness. Now I have a flashlight and lighted candle-in-a-glass jar near
this laptop. I am thinking there must be a message there, the brown out
happening as I review the passage from the Bible by my side.
But I refuse to be
distracted by any further thought. To continue: I chose this sentence from the
assigned text: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” and used it as the
basis for my sharing.
After the meeting,
during dinner, the conversation turned to this matter about the surrenderees.
All of a sudden, the whole room was overwhelmed with excited voices from the
dozen or so members indicating keen interest on the subject by our Action Group
which I took it to mean this must be a popular sentiment, that many people
would like to share their bit to do something about the situation.
Our couple leaders, Irwyn
and Joy Lumuthang, stayed behind to discuss the issue some more and before they
left, they said they would bring the matter to the attention of the Chapter
President, Jun Navarro. I immediately set to work putting flesh to the ideas
which had been thrown around before, drafted a concept and named it the Good
Samaritan Project, no doubt inspired by the Biblical selection for the day.
Let me directly
quote pertinent portions of the draft concept so that readers may also share
their thoughts with us or their neighbors, whoever they conceive them to be.
To ensure that each surrenderee is provided a comprehensive package of services from pre-treatment to full recovery.
Specific Objectives
a. To establish a baseline data on the condition of each
surrenderee which will serve as basis for treatment and post-treatment
interventions;
b. To ensure systematic provision of counselling and other services
with the full cooperation and assistance of the family and the local community;
c. To monitor regularly the progress of each client and adjust
inputs accordingly;
d. To document outstanding cases of full recovery and successful
integration with both the family and the community.
Strategy
To achieve
its objectives, the project will adopt an implementation strategy with the
following features:
a) Partnership with all key sectors with
specific inputs to deliver;
b) Mobilization of volunteers who will
be organized into teams assigned to specific cluster of target clients in
specific location and linked to specific focal person in the project management
committee;
c) Organization of families of clients
to ensure spiritual and other support to target clients.
d) Designation of a pilot area where
implementation approaches can be tested based on current organizational
capability, existence of willing partners, and affordability.
Key Activities
-Link up
with drug rehab centers in nearby regions and consult them if they can help conduct
a systematic diagnosis of those arrested and those who surrendered to determine
a) who can be treated at home; b) those who must be treated in a drug rehab
facility; and (c) those whose mental conditions has worsened due to long period
of drug use and must be committed to a mental hospital instead.
-Recruit and
train volunteers who can serve as counsellors for both drug abuse victims and
their respective families;
-Train nursing,
psychology and/or social work or social science students and their teachers on
the use of diagnostic tools so that the diagnosis could be done on a massive
scale simultaneously to cover more than 4,600 surrenderees;
-Formulate
and implement a short-term orientation or basic skills training course for all
the volunteers who are willing to do this work;
-Liaise with
partner drug rehab centers and institutions and seek their advice on how to
fast-tract treatment at substantially lower costs;
-Organize an
interim core team who will assist in mobilizing support from all sectors
(Government, Church and faith-based organizations; private sector; civil
society organizations, academic institutions, etc.
-Get an
updated list of surrenderees and all relevant data about them for planning
purposes.
Note: This is a tentative list. More
can be added.
Organization and Management
I used this
project concept as basic document to discuss with others from various
organizations who shared the same concern with us.
Due to
limited space, I will just summarize here what have been given to us during the
discussion or through the internet:
From Rene Francisco, CEO of FARM It
Chemical Dependency Center in Bohol who has had eighteen years’ experience in
rehabilitation work. He suggested a
45-day program for those who need rehabilitation. In coordination with LGUs and
other institutions, old unutilized buildings can be used to serve as rehab
centers. In the absence of these old structures in the municipality, having the
surrenderers in tent cities could be an alternative structure. He is ready to work
with a network of drug rehab centers in Cebu and Mindanao who can provide
training to rehab workers and
volunteers in Bohol.
Alain Alinio who is from the FARM
Drug Rehab Center in Cebu and also a network of such facilities in Visayas and
Mindanao has discussed their proposal with representatives of the Provincial Government
and will be willing to offer terms, too, for doing rehabilitation work with the
surrenderees.
Fr. Clarito Rara also attended the
meeting last 15 July in Baclayon. He has had 17 years of experience in
counselling drug abuse victims in a military camp at the Veterans Hospital in
Houston, Texas. He has since returned to Bohol and runs a counselling clinics
in one of the parishes. He is willing to be part of the planning and implementation
team to address the critical problem regarding the surrenderees.
Bel Jayco of the International Learning
Center in Cortez says she can mobilize social workers who can help in
documenting cases and provide auxiliary work in the various centers. She also
says she can liaise with the government to be partner in this venture.
Today, Saturday, I will go around
with Rene Francisco to visit some structures in the municipalities that can
serve as rehab centers for this growing number of drug users being identified
each day.
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