Law to aid schools with drug reformists eyed

DAVAO City Councilor Pilar Braga eyes to pass an ordinance that will financially support schools with programs for drug reformists.

"Makita nato na powerful kaayo ang mga schools daghan kaayo sila ug resources na pwedeng matabang sa atong mga so-called reformists (We have seen how powerful the schools are in terms of resources which can help our reformists). During the committee hearing we have learned about the concerns. We would like to help them and come up with an ordinance to address the need for funding and the need for the implementation, etc," she said.

Braga bared this as the Council tackled the program of City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac) dubbed as Tabangan Atong Reformists Aron Naay Asenso (Tara na)The Community Based Rehabilitation and Aftercare Program (CBRAP).

The program primarily enjoins the community of the academe and technical-vocational education training (Tvet) institutions to provide service in the community through the National Service Training ProgramCivic Welfare Training Service (NSTP-CWTS), National Service Reserve Corps (NSRC) and their institutional community development programs.

Various national ofA fices, including Office of the Civil Defense, Davao City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Board, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education Services Development Authority (Tesda), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Davao Association of Catholic Schools, tackled different functions and programs to make the program of Cadac effective.

Some educational institutions have shown some of the programs they are doing for reformists.

"Practically all the educational institutions have committed, in fact, some of our educational institutions like University of Immaculate Conception (UIC), University of Mindanao (UM), have a very, very good program for this, in fact yung kanilang program will become the model for other educational institutions to follow, so everybody present here have given their commitment to continue the implementation, humihingi lang sila ng tulong on how to really implement because the bottom line is funding," she said.

Braga said reformists are people who need to be reached out in various forms of intervention.

"Marami tayong matulong we connect this to the greater concern of the national including the president's fight against drugs. This problem is not just a small or little problem this is a major problem of the country if we can do this in Davao city, what we are doing in Davao City can be replicated to other parts of the country," she said.

The Tara Na-CBRAP is part of Cadac programs that aim help drug-affected barangays and most especially those who voluntarily surrendered to authorities.

Its official manual of procedure, according to Cadac head Michael Denton Aportadera, will be launched by November and will be approved by the city mayor as a manual of local government units and stakeholders.

Tara Na-CBRAP involves phase one intervention of six-month primary care for reformists.

From July 1 to August 30, the Davao City Drug Enforcement Monitoring Center (CDEMC) has recorded a total of 10,702 voluntary surenderees in 12 police stations. The record came from 22 drugaffected barangays of the city which is 67 percent of the 182 barangays.

From 122 barangays forming four Cadac districts, only 41 barangays have been profiled, with 1,013 reformists.

Meanwhile, it was also recorded that a total of 58 barangays or 48 percent of the total number of drug-affected barangays, availed of Cadac services, catering to 1,565 reformists.

Those from high school level topped the most number of reformists out of 472 samples extracted from Cadac profile.

From the samplex, 31 percent are recorded in high school, , 23 percent are high school graduates, 20 percent are in elementary level, 13.5 percent are elementary graduates, 6.5 percent in college level, 0.4 college graduates, and one percent in senior high school.

A total of 550 minor surenderees, about 5.3 percent, was also recorded. The youngest is 13 years old while the oldest is 17 years old and the average is 16 years old. (KVC)