GOV. Hilario Davide III said he has two options if the Department of Health (DOH) will not build a regional drug rehabilitation center in Cebu.
Davide earlier said that he will request the National Government to build a rehabilitation center in Cebu.
In her recent visit in Cebu, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial, however, said that the DOH will build a government drug rehabilitation center in a military camp in Carmen, Bohol, and not in Cebu.
In a press conference yesterday, Davide said that he may either send some of the drug surrenderers to the rehab center that will be constructed in Bohol or have them treated in a rehabilitation facility in Argao.
Davide, however, said that he will still send a letter to Ubial to include Cebu in the project.
Serious
Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (Cpadao) head Carmen Ivy Durano-Meca said that there are 35,000 surrenderers in Cebu.
Of the 35,000, there are at least 10 percent or 3,500 of them are serious drug dependent that need to be rehabilitated.
She said that the remaining 31,500 surrenderers will undergo community-based treatment.
The health department earmarked P54 million for the improvement and expansion of the DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in the southern town of Argao.
Ubial earlier said that the DOH is asking for a P144 billion budget for its 2017 budget, the biggest ever submitted by the agency.
Of the amount, P3 billion will be used for the construction of rehabilitation and treatment centers all over the country.
Ubial said that the National Government will build five regional rehabilitation centers next year. These will be in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Socsargen, Mimaropa, Cordillera and Negros Island.
Aside from that, the DOH will also establish four mega-treatment and rehabilitation centers in military camps: two in Luzon, one in Malungon, Saranggani, and one in the Visayas, which will either be in Capiz Province or in Carmen town in Bohol.