Next mega drug rehab center will be in Bohol — Palace

Malacañang on Thursday announced that another mega drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation center will be located in a military camp in Carmen, Bohol.

“The Department of Health signed the Memorandum of Agreement yesterday January 4, 2017 with ARCHIGLOBAL to build the next Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center inside the military camp in Carmen, Bohol,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a news briefing in Malacañang.

Abella, however, could not provide more information on ARCHIGLOBAL.

The first mega drug rehabilitation center under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte was in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.

Chinese billionaire Huang Rulun funded the 10,000-bed facility worth P1.4 billion.

The government is expecting two hundred patients to be admitted at the Fort Magsaysay center by end of January, Abella added.

According to Malacañang’s 2016 yearend report, over a million drug users and pushers have surrendered to the authorities since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016.

More donors

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said San Miguel Corporation, Megaworld, DMCI Holdings, and Ayala Corp. already pledged to help the government build drug rehabilitation centers.

“Pero we are negotiating with them na ‘yung mega rehabilitation center natin in Nueva Ecija is too big. Baka mahirapan tayong mag-maintain ng very big facility like the Nueva Ecija,” he said.

“We are negotiating with these donors na kung puwede hati-hatiin lang natin na 500 to 1,000 lang ang capacity. Kung pwede tig-500, 500 para ma-divide natin ito into several provinces kasi maraming provinces din na willing mag-donate ng rehab,” Sueno added.

He also said different church groups volunteered to help the government in its war on drugs.

“We are very glad to inform you that many of our Church people from Catholic Church, the Protestant church and the Ulama’s who have volunteered,” he said.

“Actually several of them have already initiated this move to rehabilitate our drug surrenderers. So marami na. So, we are glad that everybody is helping not only the government but also the civic and the religious sectors of the country,” Sueno said. — VVP, GMA News