Ayala to build 1st drug rehab center in ARMM
THE AYALA GROUP is building the first drug rehabilitation facility in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), in support of the government’s efforts to combat substance abuse in the country.
Ayala Foundation, Inc. on Tuesday entered into a memorandum of agreement with Marawi City and ARMM for the establishment of the drug rehabilitation center.
The facility will be called Siyapen, the Maranao word for care. It will have 70 beds for in-patient treatment as well as accommodate drug dependents undergoing outpatient care.
“The Siyapen Drug Rehabilitation Center is our way of addressing another challenge Mindanao faces — in fact, that the country faces as a whole — and of responding to the national government’s call for private sector support in addressing the drug problem,” Ayala Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said during the signing ceremony in Makati City.
In Marawi City alone, at least 123 people have been arrested and at least 471 have surrendered to the local police as of November last year for their involvement in illegal drugs, according to Ayala Foundation.
The city government of Marawi had a pending request to the Office of the President for assistance in combating drug addiction when Ayala Foundation offered to build the rehabilitation center, Marawi City Mayor Majul Usman Gandamra noted during the signing ceremony.
“I believe this offers a real opportunity to prove that we care about our people and the community,” Mr. Gandamra said.
Makati Development Corp., the construction arm of Ayala Land, Inc., will turn a building owned by the city government of Marawi until April into the rehabilitation center.
Once completed, Ayala Foundation will turn over Siyapen Drug Rehabilitation Center to the city government of Marawi for its operation.
The facility’s location within the community will supposedly allow drug dependents access to family and other forms of social support crucial to their rehabilitation.
“We believe that the Siyapen Center will contribute significantly to the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependents in ARMM, primarily in Marawi City,” Ayala Foundation President Ruel T. Maranan said during the signing ceremony.
“In building Siyapen, we hope to provide a space where personcentered recovery is made first priority, thereby paving the way for meaningful reintegration into society.”
Ayala Foundation has implemented other development programs in Mindanao prior to the establishment of a drug rehabilitation center in Marawi City.
In 2015, the Ayala group partnered with the ARMM Office of the Regional Governor and the Eisenhower Fellows Association of the Philippines for the Basilan Young Leaders Program-Leadership Communities.
Ayala Foundation expanded the program, aimed at equipping the youth with leadership skills to develop, implement and monitor projects in their respective barangays, to cover 10 more areas in ARMM last year.
The group has also brought Training Institute, a training program for teachers, to two public elementary schools in Basilan.
Other companies have heeded the government’s call to help tackle drug addiction in the country. Listed conglomerate San Miguel Corp., for one, has committed to building a rehabilitation center in Bataan. Alliance Global Group, Inc. also pledged to build such facilities in the cities of Davao and Taguig.
“At Ayala, we have always believed that, whether in Mindanao or elsewhere in our archipelago, fostering inclusive development will always require collaboration between the government and all of us in the private sector,” Mr. Zobel said. —