Recto agrees with Santiago, says too many beds at mega drug rehab center

A Senate leader on Thursday agreed with former Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Dionisio Santiago's observation that there may have been a miscalculation in the building of the 10,000-bed mega rehabilitation center in Nueva Ecija.

President Rodrigo Duterte asked Santiago to resign from his post after Santiago expressed his opinion about the facility built using a multi-billion-peso donation from Chinese businessman Huang Rulun.

“Ten-thousand-bed capacity, 400 lang [nandoon]? Eh di parang may mali nga...Sa tingin ko kung 400 lang, hindi nagagamit ng tama,” Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said in an interview.

Santiago said he was asked to resign his post after he said that drug dependents needed smaller rehabilitation centers in the regions rather than one huge facility that is supposed to house thousands.

He said Duterte could have been ill-advised as regards the matter.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday proposed that part of the mega drug rehabilitation facility in Nueva Ecija could also be used as a training facility for law enforcers involved in the fight against illegal drugs.

“Aside from being just a drug rehab facility, it can also be utilized as the country’s mega drug enforcement academy,” Sotto said.

Sotto was the chairman of DDB from 2008 to 2009.

Sotto said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) could oversee the drug enforcement academy.

“With that size, we could  produce a thousand agents per batch. Alongside PDEA, other agencies such as BOC, Immigration, PNP, and NBI can avail of the drug interdiction training program,” Sotto said, referring to the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine National Police, and the National Bureau of Investigation.

The senator further envisions the drug enforcement academy as a “world-class” training facility by seeking the assistance of instructors from China’s policy academy and the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, among others.

Duterte opened the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija last November 2016. —NB, GMA News