Davao to get 2nd drug rehab center

Beds are kept tidy inside one of the quarters of patients in the Davao City Rehabilitation Center, the city’s only treatment facility for addicts. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—A second drug rehabilitation center will be built here as the number of confessed drug addicts yielding to the police continues to rise.

Zuleika Lopez, the city administrator, said in a media statement that the new facility will rise on a 2.5-hectare land in Barangay Malagos in Baguio district and funded by a casino operator and the government’s casino regulating agency.

Lopez said groundbreaking for the new facility would take place in December and construction is expected to immediately start.

She said the new drug rehabilitation center would not only accept new wards but also help ease overcrowding at the Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents (DCTRCDD) in Barangay Oshiro.

Earlier, Dr. Gene Gulanes, DCTRCDD manager, said the center can accommodate only a maximum of 100 people butnow has at least 114 patients. Thirty-five of the patients are male minors.

Gulanes said in June, the center had only 80 patients. The number, he said, suddenly spiked following the launch of the war on drugs by President Duterte.

“It is getting crowded here,” said Gulanes.

Adjustments

Gulanes, the only doctor in Mindanao accredited by the Department of Health to run a rehab center, said the DCTRCDD has to make adjustments to accommodate more patients from as far as provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“We’ve pulled out extra beds from the female dorm since there are fewer female residents,” he said.

He said if the trend continues, the center would be forced to turn away patients.

Should court orders be issued asking the DCTRCDD to accept more patients, Gulanes said he “would be probably forced to write back the court and respectfully decline.”

Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte said the construction of another rehabilitation center in the city would be a big help.

At least 9,000 users and pushers have surrendered in the city since July. Nationwide, the number has already reached nearly 740,000.

In August, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel sought a congressional inquiry to determine how P1 billion in government funds meant to build drug rehab centers since 2002 had been used.

Pimentel said there are currently only 18 public rehab centers nationwide.

In House Resolution No. 190, Pimentel asked the Dangerous Drugs Board to explain how it spent the funds it received from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. —ALLAN NAWAL