Robredo: Barangay not yet drug-free without rehabilitation of dependents

A barangay could not be classified as drug-free unless there is available data on the progress of rehabilitation of drug dependents in the area, Vice President Leni Robredo said Friday.

“Okay naman iyong pagdedeclare ng [barangay na] drug-cleared pero one of my recommendations is dagdagan iyong requirements. Kasi kung titingnan mo iyong requirements, mahaba iyong requirements pero walang sinasabi about ano na iyong nangyari doon sa mga nag-surrender,” said Robredo, who spent 19 days as co-chair of Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs before she was fired by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Robredo made this remark a day after she attended a forum on community-based rehabilitation program in Caloocan City.  She also visited drug dependents undergoing rehabilitation in a community.

“One of the parameters listed for declaring a barangay as drug-cleared is the absence of a drug user/dependent. Pero kapag titingnan mo iyong requirements para maging drug-free, walang mention about these people who turned themselves in. Dapat lahat ng nag-surrender, na-screening na at nabigyan ng proper intervention,” Robredo added.

In her 40-page report as ICAD co-chair, Robredo cited that while the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) working numbers on drug users is pegged four million, PDEA admitted that this estimate is not based on any scientific formula. In addition, the Philippine National Police has only accounted for 1.5 million drug users, of which 1.2 million are surrenderers and over 300,000 arrested.

In the same report, Robredo lamented that the government did not have data on the number of drug users who received rehabilitation.

Records from the United States Agency for International Development’s rapid assessment, however, showed that only 32 to 50 percent of drug users were able to undergo assessment on how bad their drug addiction is and only 10 to 15 percent of them received community rehabilitation.

Given such data, Robredo said that the government should focus on strengthening community-based rehabilitation centers rather than pouring resources on setting up big rehabilitation facility far from the residence of the families of drug dependents whose support is crucial to the rehabilitation process.

“Iyong drug addiction, hindi ito one-time na kapag nagamot ka, tuloy-tuloy na. Relapsing disease ito. Ang pinakamagandang assurance para sustainable iyong pagiging drug-free, iyong proper intervention doon sa mga gumamit na before. Iyon iyong kulang sa requirements ng drug clearing,” Robredo said.

Based on government records, over 6,700 drug suspects have been killed under the police’s anti-drug operations. The said number, however, does not include those drug war deaths perpetrated by unidentified gunmen.

A Social Weather Stations survey released this week also revealed that at least 76 percent of Filipinos believe that the police’s anti-drug operations are marred with human rights abuses. —LDF, GMA News