ILLEGAL drugs have become a national security threat, Director General Isidro Lapeña of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.
Speaking at the “RealNumbersPH” anti-illegal drugs forum in a hotel in Quezon City, Lapeña said the effects on the country of the P120-billion-a- year illegal-drugs industry should not be trivialized.
He noted the contagious effect drug users or pushers have on their family and community members.
Lapeña said drug addicts or users could easily influence other people to get into drugs, who, in turn, influence other people at an exponential rate.
He said it was when the problem reached such a magnitude that not only the country’s peace and order will be affected, but the economy, as well.
He added that on the subject of real numbers, President Duterte’s often-mentioned figure of 4 million drug users in the country is actually incorrect, as the real number is closer to 4.7 million.
At the same forum, the Department of Health (DOH) said donors play a big role in its efforts to increase its rehabilitation facilities to accommodate drug users who need rehabilitation.
“So far, aside from the Mega Treatment and Rehab Center in Nueva Ecija, we have eight upcoming projects for the Treatment and Rehab Center,” Heath Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial said.
Ubial added ongoing construction of the said facilities was made possible by donations from various individuals and agencies.
“The facility in Pilar, Bataan, will be donated by the San Miguel Corp. Foundation; the one in Camp Sikatuna in Bohol is donated by a non-governmental organization [NGO]—the Kausaban Foundation; the one in Camp Bagong Diwa [in Taguig, Metro Manila] wherein we already have a treatment and rehab center…but Mega World Corp. is donating another building that can house 500 patients,” Ubial added.
She said another one is being constructed in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, which were from a donation of Friends of the Philippines, a Chinese group and NGO, and inauguration on March 25.
Other projects were in Trece Martires City which was donated by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), in Agusan del Sur by the Chinese government; and in Central Mindanao, particularly in Sarangani province, another facility to be donated by government of China; and in Davao, which was inaugurated in December 2016 in Calinan, Davao City, to be donated by Resorts World to the local government of Davao.
“So, the DOH, as the nation’s leader in health care, provides coherence and direction in enhancing the operational effectiveness of local health systems toward improved health status in the local community,” Ubial said.
She added one of the pillars of the Philippine Health Agenda focuses on protecting Filipinos from the triple burden of diseases.
“So the first burden is infectious diseases. The second burden is non-infectious diseases. The third burden is the diseases of modern-day living and rapid urbanization. These include mental-health problems, bodily injuries and also, drug abuse,” she said.
She said the DOH has a comprehensive program on the levels of prevention and the levels of addressing the mental- health issues of this country, including drug dependence.
Other efforts of the agency as part of addressing illegal-drugs use and handling the rehabilitation of addicts is continuous training of city and municipal health officers in order to enable them to assess patients whether they are qualified for community-based rehabilitation only or there is a need for them to be placed in rehabilitation facilities.
This effort is complemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which also help in the community-based rehabilitation along with other groups for the after-care program.
Like the DSWD, which is the heart of government service for the poor and vulnerable, the agency provides care to the drug users in order to reform them and give them chance to be healed from the drug menace that victimizes them and become “assets” of the country too.