Finally, more patients in ‘mega’ drug center

Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC)

The country’s biggest drug rehabilitation center may finally be put to good use, especially by those who want to use it.

The Supreme Court has directed all lower court judges to issue commitment orders for arrested drug suspects to the “mega” rehabilitation center in Nueva Ecija, which has been treating only a handful of patients since it opened in November last year.

Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez issued the order upon the request of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which had been complaining that the use of the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (MDATRC) at Fort Magsaysay had not been maximized.

Practicable

“Considering that most government drug treatment and rehabilitation centers are already overcrowded, the Office of the Court Administrator hereby enjoins all concerned judges to refer, as far as practicable, drug users and dependents to the MDATRC,” Marquez said in his order dated June 6.

The order covers “drug users and pushers who are ordered for treatment and rehabilitation by the courts.”

Huang Rulun, a Chinese real estate tycoon who donated P1.4 billion in support of President Duterte’s war on drugs, bankrolled the construction of the center.

The Department of Justice has been tasked with shouldering the operations and maintenance costs of the center, which is managed by the Department of Health.

Still under construction

The 10-hectare center  could accommodate up to 10,000 patients, but parts of it are still under construction.

The Duterte administration has been boasting that the success of its antidrug war has led to the surrender of some 1.2 million drug dependents all over the country.

Authorities, however, have failed to recognize that not even 1 percent of those who had turned themselves in had been admitted for rehabilitation.

Only 127 patients

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said that as of February, only 127 patients had been brought to the center, mostly from the provinces of Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.

Mr. Duterte’s  take-no-prisoners approach to the narcotics trade has left thousands of suspects dead, most of them killed in gangland-style executions by unknown gunmen.

Assistant Interior Secretary Ricojudge Echiverri earlier said the government had been “spending so much for the maintenance” of the rehabilitation center, but “nobody’s volunteering to treat themselves.”

“You can’t force someone to go there because it’s voluntary. These are not prisoners,” he said.