IN LINE with President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs, the Davao City Government on Tuesday, December 6, held a groundbreaking and time capsule-laying ceremony of the new drug rehabilitation facility in Malagos village, Calinan.
The 1.9-hectare Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents (TRCDD) has a total budget of P200 million and will accommodate 224 persons and is expected to be completed in December next year.
Only 1.2 hectare of the total land area of 1.9 hectares will be used for the facility to give room for expansion.
The facility has an indoor covered basketball court, medical facilities, canteen, dormitory, offices, and visitor's center for the families who wish to visit. The City Government also allotted open spaces to create an atmosphere of freedom among the patients.
When it comes to the operation, the mayor has already directed Dr. Gene Gulanes, head of the Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for drug dependents to plan the budget for its operations.
This developed as a response of the private sector to the call of President Duterte to help him in his crackdown against illegal drugs and assist in establishing centers through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) all over the country to rehabilitate drug dependents.
The new center is funded by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) in cooperation with Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. and Resorts World Philippines Cultural Heritage Foundation, Inc.
The government facility, however, has insufficient capacity to cater all the reformists.
In her remarks, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio thanked the sponsors for choosing the city as the pilot site to build the rehabilitation center project that would benefit the almost 10,000 recorded drug surrenderees in the city.
"Today, we break ground on the future site of the facility that will enable us to help more drug dependents win off their destructive habit," Duterte said, adding that it will fill the lacking facility and will help the drug dependents return to their families as renewed individuals and move on with their lives and contribute to nation building.
The construction of the facility, she said, is in support of the nationwide campaign of the Duterte administration against dangerous drugs and in a bid to create a platform to rehabilitate the growing number of drug surrenderees.
"We hope to encourage other localities to find ways to create or improve their rehabilitation centers so we may attain our aspiration as a drug-free Philippines," she said.
In an interview with Travellers president and chief executive officer Kingson Sian, he said they plan to build two drug rehabilitation centers as part of their corporate social responsibility and commitment to help the government.
He added they choose Davao because "this is where all it started."
"Why not [Davao]? I think we wanted to send a strong message that we, in the private sector is in support to this problem that we are facing," Sian said, adding that the center is a sanctioned facility of the Department of Health (DOH).
The center, according to him, has floor area of 7,000 square meters.
By the first quarter of 2018, the mayor said that it will already be fully-operated with budget in collaboration with DOH.
Although there is no memorandum of agreement yet, the mayor said the contribution of the City Government is providing the property while facilities are all covered by the Resorts World.