MANILA Mayor Joseph Estrada will ask for a P100-million funding from the national government to hasten the construction of a specialized drug rehabilitation center at the city-owned Manila Boystown Complex in Marikina City.
Estrada said Thursday the P100 million will cover the construction of a 100-bed building in a five-hectare portion of Boystown facility in Parang where drug users who surrendered to authorities will undergo rehabilitation.
“We need the help of the national government, We will ask for a P100 million funding support for this rehabilitation center,” Estrada said in a statement.
Estrada was among the Metro Manila chief executives who have voiced their strong support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
Under Estrada’s watch, Manila has the most number of drug suspects who were arrested and voluntarily surrendered to the city police, which, at the latest count, stood at more than 500; at least 10,000 have also presented themselves to the police authorities during “Oplan Tokhang” operations.
In the planned drug rehabilitation center, Estrada said the city government will take care of the maintenance and operational costs, including the meals, medicines, and vital needs of the drug patients.
“We will take care of these, although the maintenance is enormous. Breakfast, lunch, supper, will be maintained every day. We need to put doctors there, too, and medical personnel. It’s not a joke,” he pointed out.
The extensive rehabilitation treatment, Estrada added, is also costly, because it takes a minimum of three months for a patient to fully recover.
Estrada stressed, however, that expenses are immaterial in helping a drug dependent to be treated and start a new life.
“Drug dependents do not cease to be humans when they do drugs. We will help them. They should get adequate treatment and they need our help,” the mayor said.
The Boystown drug rehabilitation project is handled by Estrada’s daughter Jerika Ejercito, who heads the non-government organization Initiatives for Life and Action for Women (ILAW).
ILAW helps troubled women in Manila who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, depression and other mental sickness, and all forms of abuse.
ILAW has recently facilitated the admission of at least 70 drug dependents to the Manila Boystown Complex, an orphanage operated by the city government for homeless individuals.