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[av_heading heading=’Bacolod drug rehab center takeover pushed ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Councilors want the city government to operate and manage the drug rehabilitation center in Paglaum Village.
The REACH Foundation, a private entity, is currently running the center.
Councilor Em Ang said the Sangguniang Panlungsod asked Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Rep. Greg Gasataya to study the possibility of taking over the center’s operation and management.
According to Ang, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) promised to provide a P20-million support if city hall manages the facility.
The center was the first such facility in the region to be accredited by the DDB, the city council noted in a resolution.
It caters to drug dependents, mostly from this city, from low-income families and who cannot afford treatment in other private facilities.
A third of the center’s monthly budget is subsidized by the city government while the rest comes from contributions from the patients’ families and donations from the community, the councilors said.
City hall can improve the center’s services and expand its capacity to accommodate more patients, Ang said.
She claimed the foundation can barely sustain the operation considering that most of the patients are indigents.
Every patient is supposed to pay P8,500 a month for the treatment.
Ang said the amount the DDB promised to give may be used to rehabilitate the center and put up more buildings if needed.
Having an improved drug rehabilitation center is also in support to the Duterte administration’s antidrug campaign, she stressed.
The government’s war on drugs has resulted in thousands of self-confessed users and suspected traders turning themselves in to the authorities.
It also prompted calls to address drug dependence by putting up centers and establishing programs for rehabilitation.
Ang said the city government can help fill this “gap” in the campaign by taking over the drug rehab center in Paglaum Village./PN
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