PANGASINAN OPENS CENTER FOR REFORMED DRUGGIES

BURGOS, PANGASINAN— Starting later this month, rehabilitating drug users in Pangasinan province, can avail themselves of an aftercare training program, with the inauguration on Tuesday of the Pangasinan Reformation Center (PRC) here.

The center on a 2-hectare lot in Barangay San Vicente here has dormitories, classrooms, a mess hall, a kitchen, lavatories and recreational halls that can accommodate at least 100 people.

When the center starts its operation on the third week of March, 50 trainees will be accepted. The province will spend at least P200,000 for these trainees who will stay in the center for five days.

Retired Navy Capt. Carlo Resurreccion, head of the provincial antidrug abuse council secretariat, said only those with mild drug dependence would be accommodated as well as those who had already gone through the community-based rehabilitation program.

Livelihood training

The center would focus on livelihood training so reformed drug dependents would be discouraged from returning to drug pushing just to earn a living, he said.

According to the provincial police, more than 19,000 suspected drug users and dealers in Pangasinan, had surrendered since the start of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs in 2016.

Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino III said the provincial government did not call the facility a drug rehabilitation center because they planed to admit young offenders who were not necessarily drug users or pushers.

At present, children who are in conflict with the law are taken to a rehabilitation center in neighboring La Union province, and their accommodations are shouldered by their town or city government.