PRACTICAL INITIATIVES

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Starting this week, we have heard practical initiatives on how to cope with more than 100, 000 illegal drug users and pushers who have surrendered to police authorities for fear to end up as corpses in the current deadly war launched by the Duterte administration.

Aside from news about gruesome killings which readers have been used to during the past few weeks, the scene has brightened up with actual initiatives either proposed or put on the ground to respond to the need for surrenderees to pass through a systematic process of diagnosis, counselling and for others, a more intensive treatment and recovery process.

For Bohol, a meeting is being held at this time while we are writing this column today, 04 August, by the Provincial Anti-Drug Council (PADAC) presided by Gov. Edgar Chatto. The meeting seeks  to finalize details on how to operationalize in two weeks’ time a Counseling and Rehabilitation Center.

The facility will be located at the Oak Brook Building near the St. Joseph Cathedral and will be staffed by a doctor, social worker, nurse and clerk, according to Dave Charles Responte, who posted the early news about the meeting on Facebook along with picures taken by Ric Obedencio.

A long way to go to cope with the 30,000 identified drug addicts and pushers who have surrendered the past few weeks, but a significant initial step to provide a contact point where drug abuse victims can be categorized and provided initial counselling and advice for referral and treatment.

As described by the FB posting, the facility looks like an Outreach and Drop-In Center (ODIC), which is a sort of half-way house to a regular drug rehab center. We hope it will happen soon and made operational so municipal LGUs and private sector entities can learn how to establish and operate one. In previous columns, based on the experience of health ministries and local governments in other countries, we have noted such facility is quite important to serve as information, diagnostic and referral centers for drug addiction cases.

In our own estimate, such facility, if it will use an existing building or office, will cost only around Php 350,000 to maintain in a year for a staff of three and other office requirements. Most LGUs can afford such cost. In fact, the facility can require payment for its services to make it sustainable.

With such huge number of drug users, however, which may reach more than 30,000, building such facilities as a counselling and drop-in centers will not be sufficient to cope with the need to provide comprehensive treatment and post-treatment services. In fact, we need more than one drug rehabilitation and mental hospital as planned to be located in the Municipality of Carlos P. Garcia under the draft Development Framework of the Province of Bohol.

It looks like we need to launch a vigorous advocacy and marketing campaign so that the private sector, including the existing drug rehab centers in other regions, will find it attractive to establish branches here in the province where they can be assured of substantial support from the Government and other stakeholders, such as the business community, who will be among those affected adversely if hundreds of illegal drug users remain untreated.

Meanwhile, let us study some practical initiatives either proposed or launched in some areas of the country to cope with the overwhelming number of surrenderees expected to reach more than 150,000 by this month.

Fr. Fernando Po, drug awareness guru and development advocate, called our attention early this week about an initiative championed by ex-drug addict–turned-Congressman, Arnolfo Teves, Jr. of Negros Oriental.

Congressman Teves proposes that:

-Public high school classrooms be used as rehabilitation centers from 5 pm to 8 p.m. because classrooms are no longer in use at this time. He says this is the time when an addict’s day normally starts, when the addict has the most cravings for drugs.

-Around 50 drug dependents to stay in a classroom and their rehabilitation program to be conducted by two primary counselors, two secondary counselors, and two volunteers.

-Participants to attend 8 am-to-9 am meetings at barangay covered courts.

-An optional physical therapy session, which may include a game of basketball or a session of zumba, to follow from 9 am to 10 am.

-The daily rehabilitation program to be implemented in the span of 8 to 12 weeks.

If approved by the Duterte administration, he plans to coordinate with different local government units. He says his proposed rehabilitation program would only cost the government Php 2,500 per drug dependent.

In Iloilo City, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said the city government would allocate Php 5 million initially from its peace and order fund to establish drop-in centers to address the needs of surrenderees with mild and moderate addiction. He said those with severe cases will be referred to the Department of Health.

Mayor Mabilog noted that most families cannot afford the cost of treatment, which may last from three to six months. In the Western Visayas region, treatment cost, excluding medicines, ranges from Php 10,000 monthly in government centers and Php 25,000 to Php 60,000 monthly in private facilities.

The drop-in center, to be established in each of the city’s six districts, will employ a psychologist, a nurse, three peer facilitators and a record custodian or utility person. Clients will be provided periodic drug testing, spiritual and psycho-social counseling, vitamins and post-care follow-up for a period of one year.

For the national government, Pres. Duterte announced in last night’s meeting with volunteers in the recent elections that he would convert military camps into drug rehab facilities complete with doctors, nurses, and social workers. He did not indicate a time frame for this remarkable plan.

In a press conference in Jaro, Iloilo City last 05 July, Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial announced that all regional offices have been ordered “to really prioritize community-based rehabilitation centers.” She said that not all drug dependents have to be residential or have to be committed to a facility.

According to her, the DOH treatment and rehabilitation centers have been trained to establish community-based centers and what is now needed is getting the cooperation of local government units.

She compares the community-based drug rehabilitation approach to a parole program wherein a drug addict who surrenders reports to his or her barangay officials everyday.

"We do random drug test, any time that they report, they can be tested. If they test positive, they have to undergo screening by our doctors, and if need be, they have to be committed to facilities. Not all who surrender will be automatically committed to a facility," she explained.

The DOH head said that the program also includes after-care, with government continuing to support a "graduate" of the treatment and rehabilitation center even after he or she returns to the community. She disclosed that the community-based drug rehabilitation approach was pilot-tested in Davao City years ago.

It is expected that the community-based drug rehabilitation approach will be replicated throughout the country through the DOH regional offices in collaboration with local government units.

The health secretary said scaling up the program would entail the training of LGU and barangay officials who will facilitate community-based rehabilitation services. DOH will tap LGUs and non-governmental organizations to help in assisting patients who may not be accommodated by existing treatment and rehabilitation centers. Private facilities can expand to admit some of the patients, but government will pay for residential treatment.

For the long term, DOH will convert some facilities into treatment and rehabilitation centers soon, in collaboration with LGUs. The DOH will shoulder the centers' operating expenses, and LGUs will provide the personnel.

The report says the health department's Health Facilities Enhancement Program has a P26.87 billion allocation in the 2016 budget. Of this amount, P18.96 billion is for the construction, expansion, rehabilitation, and repair of health facilities, including dangerous drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation centers.

Meanwhile, the killing continues. More and more drug users and pushers, out of fear, are swelling the ranks of surrenderees from day to day. It’s about time the practical initiatives which have been proposed are planned, funded and implemented.

Otherwise the war against illegal drugs will just be a grand horror show for our country and the whole world. For comments, email npestelos@gmail.com.

NMP/04 Aug. 2016/9.41 p.m.

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