The Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) and the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) has introduced the government’s “holistic approach in addressing the illegal drugs problem in the country.”
In a forum in Dumaguete over the weekend, PCOO Assistant Sec. Ramon Cualoping III said the program, called Rehabinasyon, is “an all encompassing program on anti-illegal drugs.”
This is based on the concept that one person or one agency alone cannot fight the war on drugs and that “the President needs all of us to make this country a better place.”
The problem on illegal drugs is the problem of all, to include the community and the family, among others, he said.
Participants in the forum, consisting of local officials, the youth sector, the academe, law enforcement agencies and other sectors, expressed their support for the government’s program.
For his part, Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Remollo asked the TokHang surrenderers who have not volunteered to avail of the free community-based rehabilitation program. He warned that if they return to their old ways of engaging in illegal drug use or trade, “the police will go after you.”
Also present were Undersecretary Benjamin Reyes of the Dangerous Drugs Board, Director Derrick Carreon of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Assistant Sec. Aurora Ignacio of the Office of the President, Dr. Ivan Hoe Escartin of the Department of Health, Bureau of Corrections Deputy Director Ramon Melvin Buenafe, among others. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
