TABANGAN Atong Reformist Aron Naa’y Asenso (Tara Na!), a community-based rehabilitation and aftercare program (CBRAP) of the city to address drug surrenderers, has noted only 4,154 enrollees of the program, urging the support of the barangays to join in this crusade.
Concepcion Domag of CBRAP said as of July 2018, the Philippine National Police (PNP) gave them a figure of 11,249 who voluntarily surrendered but only 4,154 of them sought their help and enrolled in the program.
Tara Na CBRAP is organized by the Davao City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac). It is designed to provide support for the rehabilitation of the suspected drug users or pushers who surrendered to the authorities here in the city. It is a comprehensive program offering different services from recovery, livelihood and employment.
Domag said the program has three phases of intervention. Phase 1 is the intensive care which lasts for six months while Phase 2 is the aftercare program which stretches up to 18 months and Phase 3 is the continuum of care.
Cadac recorded at least 784 reformists have completed the Phase 1 who were then referred to the next phase, which is the aftercare program.
These individuals came from 26 barangays only out of the 182 barangays in Davao City, meaning, there are still barangays who have not yet engaged their reformists on the stage of the Phase 1.
“There are still quite a number of barangays who have not yet started providing interventions to their surrenderees listed in their barangays. There are only around 4,000 who enrolled, the remaining 6,000 [surrenderees] are still in the community so what are we doing with them? We are still continuing to encourage them to enroll in the program,” she said.
She added that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) told them that once the surrenderers will not be enrolled in the rehabilitation program, they will be included in the watchlist again.
“We are now encouraging the barangay captains to really put in initiatives of bringing those surrenderers in their barangays to our program to avail the interventions which are given free and in partnerships with the different line agencies of the government as well as the private sectors such the higher education institutions who are adopting some of the communities,” she added.