To help drug dependents start a new life, Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada has released an initial fund of P50 million to kick-start a comprehensive drug treatment program for thousands of drug suspects who have surrendered to authorities.
Estrada assigned his daughter Jerika Ejercito, program director of the non-government organization Initiatives for Life and Action for Women, to spearhead the launch of the “Sagip Buhay, Sagip Pangarap” in Manila’s 896 barangays.
During the “Newsbreak” forum of the Manila City Hall Press Club at Cherry Blossoms Hotel in Malate on Tuesday, Ejercito announced that they will train 64 members of ILAW later this month to become “assessors,” or those who will screen the first 2,000 of the more than 9,000 drug suspects who have surrendered to the Manila Police District in the previous months.
The assessors will be deployed to the barangays to conduct initial interview and screening of the would-be beneficiaries to separate the worst cases of drug abuse from those that are considered “treatable.”
“Seminar ‘yun para sa mga mag-a-assess. Tuturuan sila. Tapos kasama din ang ating mga barangay health workers. They will be very much involved in the screening of our drug patients,” Ejercito explained.
“Drug dependents are also victims. They should not vilified. They deserve a second chance to live and it is only proper that we should help them become responsible and law-abiding citizens again,” the Manila mayor said.
The Sagip Buhay, Sagip Pangarap program seeks to establish “multi-option modes of quality, efficient, professional, and comprehensive” rehabilitation services in each of the 896 barangays of Manila to enable drug users to achieve complete recovery.
Estrada said the primary aim of the program is to help the drug dependents be reintegrated to the society again.
Aside from ILAW volunteers, barangay health workers will be also included in the four-day training to facilitate the assessment and screening of drug patients in every barangay.
The “treatable” cases will be given medical and psycho-social treatment by a team of medical professionals such as psychologists and psychiatrists. To help them start new lives, they will also be given jobs commensurate to their educational background or seed capital for them to open their own business ventures, Ejercito explained.
“Our outpatient rehab runs on the assumption that the Mayor is the father of the city who asks his prodigal sons to come back home. Save life, save dreams. Something must have happened along the way for them to turn to drugs,” she pointed out, referring to people who have become drug users.
“No one is born an addict or a rapist. No child has told me, “I want to be an addict or a rapist when I grow up,” Ejercito added.
ILAW helps troubled women in Manila who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, depression and other mental sickness, and all forms of abuse. It has recently facilitated the admission of at least 70 drug dependents to the Manila Boystown Complex, an orphanage being operated by the city government for homeless individuals.
The rehabilitation program for Manila’s drug users is on top of the planned expansion of the Boystown Complex to house and treat thousands of drug users.
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.