New drug rehab center to rise within Bilibid

To better attend to its drug-dependent inmates, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is building a new drug treatment and rehabilitation center inside New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. Out of the more than 28,000 inmates at NBP, around 30 percent or more than 8,300 were convicted of drug cases.

NBP has been identified as the control center of drug networks in the country, with convicted felons being able to continue their drug operations inside the heavily secured prison complex.

Residential type

“We are optimistic that with the treatment and rehabilitation facility in place, drug dependency through appropriate interventions in jails will be addressed,’’ said Catalino Cuy, chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), who signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with BuCor chief, Gerald Bantag, to build the rehabilitation center.

The center is envisioned as a residential type of drug rehabilitation facility that will use different modes of treatment through therapeutic community, vocational-occupational training, family counseling and anonymous support group models.

The DDB provided some P8.5-million grant for the construction of the facility in line with the Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy, the updated blueprint of the government’s campaign against illegal drugs signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018.

The DDB on Dec. 17 also signed a MOA with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology for the construction of three drug rehabilitation facilities in jail compounds.

The first phase will be in Malaybalay City Jail in Bukidnon, followed by Quezon District Jail and Negros Occidental District Jail.

“We should not deny those who are in jail, whether they have been proven guilty of drug-related offenses or are still undergoing trial, of appropriate drug treatment and rehabilitation interventions,” Cuy said in a separate statement.