CHECK FROM DDB. Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc receives a check worth P5 million from Undersecretay Earl Saavedra of the Dangerous Drugs Board. The amount will be used for the establishment of a drug rehabilitation center in Barangay Tamdagan, Vintar town. (Photo from Ilocos Norte province)
LAOAG CITY—A community-based rehabilitation facility in the province will soon rise in a remote village of Tamdagan in Vintar, Ilocos Norte.
This is good news to all the 175 individuals who have on-going plea bargain cases in the province as they may now be able to avail of a facility nearest them.
As part of the continuing drug cleansing program of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) released PHP5 million to Ilocos Norte to fund the construction of a community-based rehabilitation facility at Barangay Tamdagan, Vintar.
Last December 13, Undersecretary Earl Saavedra of the DDB personally handed the check to Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc at the Ilocos Norte Capitol.
“We put communities at the center of all our anti-drug efforts and our intention is to really help local government units put up rehabilitation facilities na tutulong sa ating mga kababayan na napariwara ang landas at naging biktima ng paggamit ng illegal na droga,” Saavedra said in an earlier interview.
For his part, Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc expressed his gratitude to the DDB especially to Undersecretary Saavedra for facilitating the donation and for assisting the province a drug-free community.
“For the few (in Ilocos Norte) that are affected, we’d like them to receive the help that they deserve; to comeback to a more wholesome world so we help them with that process,” said Manotoc on Friday.
The provincial government hopes to open the facility early next year. It shall serve as an “outpatient processing center” for mild to moderate drug-dependent surrenderers.
Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer, Corazon Lilian Rin, said the facility will be manned by social workers and health personnel for the holistic reformation of those who were hooked into prohibited drugs.
Of the 21 towns and two cities of Ilocos Norte, at least nine towns have been recognized as “drug-cleared” by the Philippine National Police subject to revalidation by authorized agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency(PDA)
These are the towns of Adams, Bacarra, Banna, Burgos, Carasi, Currimao, Dumalneg, Marcos, and Vintar. (PNA)
