Metro Manila, Philippines— Three billion pesos from the proposed P144 billion health budget for 2017 is being allocated for the construction of rehabilitation centers for drug dependents, the health department said Wednesday, October 12.
“In the 2017 budget, there’s about three billion (pesos) budget for establishing four ‘mega’ treatment and rehabilitation centers and four regional treatment and rehabilitation centers,” Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr. Paulyn Rosell-Ubial told CNN Philippines’ The Source. These additional eight facilities will augment the 13 centers that DOH now runs.
Five local government-run drug rehabilitation facilities in the country already exist, such as the one in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown of Davao, Ubial cites. DOH is encouraging local governments to establish one per province.
On Monday, October 10, the DOH presented the first rehab center in Nueva Ecija, which will be fully operational by November, ready to accommodate 2,500 persons. The center was funded by an anonymous Chinese donor.
The fast-tracking of the drug rehab centers follows the revelation of more than 700,000 pushers and addicts turning themselves in to authorities before October 7, which marked the end of the first 100 days of the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We’re shifting very quickly from the national security mode into the public health mode especially regarding drugs,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Monday, October 10.
The ₱122-billion budget for 2016 includes ₱4.0 billion to family health, which oversees the reproductive health programs, a priority of President Rodrigo Duterte’s 10-point economic agenda. ₱44 million has also been allotted for the enrollment of poor Filipinos in the government health insurance program known as PhilHealth.
Another major task of the DOH is dealing with the triple-threat of mosquito-borne diseases: Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya.
Ubial says that DOH would distribute packages containing bed nets, repellants, vitamins and information material to pregnant women, since Zika can cause birth defects. However, it is still non-communicable, non-infectious diseases that are on the rise. These include cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, strokes, cerebral-vascular accidents, and cancer.
