Some 715,699 drug suspects have surrendered to the authorities as part of the government’s drug war, but most of them have become unaccounted for after giving themselves up, according to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) on Thursday.
Speaking at a hearing of the House dangerous drugs committee, DDB chair Benjamin Reyes said that was the “dilemma” his agency was facing, considering that only a small proportion of the “surrenderers” required long-term admission to inpatient treatment.
“Nobody expected that there would be so many surrenderers… In the beginning, [the police] thought they would only have to draw up the list and go house-to-house. Then they were shocked to find so many giving themselves up,” he told the committee.
“Now we’re having a problem calling them back in” for interventions, Reyes told the committee chaired by Rep. Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte.
He cited the case of Antipolo City.
“There were 8,000 surrenderers when the ‘[Oplan] Tokhang’ activity was done by Rizal provincial police. But when we were giving interventions through faith-based organizations, Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) and private organizations, only 30 came back for intervention,” Reyes said.
“We wondered why were there only 30 out of 8,000? Maybe we need another Tokhang activity,” he said.
In a previous hearing by the same committee in late August, Reyes’ predecessor, Felipe Rojas Jr., explained that only nine percent of the surrenderers—who at the time numbered only 600,000—actually needed to undergo rehabilitation.
“There are reports that they have been coerced to put their name on record. But that is not an immunity from arrest,” Rojas said.
Speaking at the same hearing, Jasmine Peralta, program manager of the Department of Health and DDB’s Dangerous Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program, said that based on reports from the ground, not all of the surrenderers were drug users who needed rehabilitation.
In a Sept. 21 letter to Barbers, Reyes suggested that more outpatient drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities be built for the surrenderers.
Rehab facilities
“The Board is suggesting that given the influx of drug personalities who voluntarily surrendered, which as of Sept. 20, 2016, stands at 715,699 individuals as per data from the Philippine National Police, establishment and maintenance of outpatient drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities should be prioritized,” he said.
Citing data from the 2015 United Nations World Drug Report, he said only 0.6 percent to 1 percent of the people who surrendered required inpatient care in treatment and rehabilitation centers.
“The required medical intervention for the remaining 99 percent may be introduced by outpatient facilities. Given the huge number of surrendering individuals, it is essential that these outpatient facilities be present in the district or provincial levels so they can immediately avail of required medical interventions,” Reyes said.