PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- Continuing efforts to help recovering drug surrenderers (RDS) in Palawan stepped up on Friday with the implementation of the 16-week Community Enhancement and Livelihood Project (CELP) going to the northern town of Araceli.
Ma. Teresa Acda, provincial team leader of the CELP-Technical Working Group, said the memorandum of agreement (MOA) to help 10 RDS in Araceli, a fourth class municipality in the province of Palawan, was signed by Vice Governor Dennis Socrates, Araceli Mayor Noel Beronio, and other stakeholders.
“We’re really focused on helping our RDS because they deserve clean breaks against drug dependency. We want them to have fresh outlooks in life, to have positive views of everything despite what happened in the past,” Acda said.
She said like the RDS in Roxas, El Nido, Brooke’s Point, and San Vicente, those in Araceli will also undergo moral and spiritual counselling, physical training regimen, livelihood lectures, and support of the community care team (CCT) to heal from addiction.
“If other municipalities can implement CELP, we believe Araceli can also do it through its mayor. We know we will see positive changes out of the 10 RDS,” she said.
In his message, Socrates stressed the important need for Palawan in taking a stake to help the RDS fight drug addiction as an ill of the society.
"Ito ay isa sa mga nagiging ugat ng pinakamaraming krimen sa ating komunidad kaya ito ang tugon natin na isang programa para sa ating mga drug surrenderees (This is one of the root causes of many crimes in our communities so, in response, we have opened this project for our drug surrenderees),” he said. (PNA)
