NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST ESTABLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’s SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
Gov. Aris Aumentado vowed to open the first Drug Rehabilitation Center in the province next year.
The pronouncement was made during the meeting of the Provincial Anti-Drugs Advisory Council (PADAC) at the Capitol last Friday.
The planned rehab center is faster to realize since it will occupy the existing Bohol Youth Home which is lying idle in a one-hectare gated compound in Cortes town.
An unused P5 million fund assistance from the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) will be augmented with a counterpart fund from the provincial government. The budget outlay will finance the refurbishing of the building as well as the training of manpower to man the first Drugs Rehabilitation Center in the province
“This is the missing link in the campaign against drugs,” the governor stressed while he cited the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in their intensified campaign against drugs. He revealed that his office is assisting the authorities with logistics for their intelligence operation.
“This is the reason why the PNP and PDEA have seized millions worth of shabu during the past months,” the governor said.
The announcement of opening a drug rehab center was welcomed by the Church who sent representatives during last Friday’s meeting.
Msgr. Efren Bongay, Msgr Vic Uy, Fr. Jimboy Saco and a representative from the Diocese of Talibon echoed the need to have an “aftercare” program for the drug dependents.
Fr. Saco, who managed some 100 drug dependents during the pandemic, narrated his experience in helping in the anti-drug campaign. He recalled his experience with the drug dependents in Maribojoc town whom he tapped to work in the rehabilitation of the churches.
“We need to provide them jobs if we want them to avoid going back to drug addiction after being released from jail,” Fr Saco said.
The governor instructed Anne Mariquit Oppus, HR of the provincial government to look into the utilization of the Bohol Youth Home which was constructed during the term of former Gov Edgar Chatto.
Oppus said amendments to the ordinance creating the Bohol Youth Home have to be made by the Sangguninga Panlalawigan in order to utilize the compound into a drug rehab.