Sotto wants drug rehab free under separate gov’t agency
Nationalist People’s Coalition senatorial candidate Vicente C. Sotto III wants the rehabilitation free for all drug dependents in the country as he agreed to form an attached agency under the Department of Health (DOH) that will focus on addressing the problems of drug abuse in the country.
Sotto said the free rehabilitation will be in line with the benefits given by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) while the attached agency under the DOH will be called the Bureau of Drug Abuse Treatment (BDAT), a bureau that will deal with all problems and development programs for drug dependents.
This developed after Sotto met with Dr. Geraldo Aquino, director of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Dr. Rustico Apolonio and Dr. David Baron of Cebu Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, and representatives of DOH Manila.
Sotto believes that the government cannot win the war against illegal drugs and drug abuse by having effective law enforcement and prosecution alone but also by focusing on rehabilitation and preventive education.
Sotto made the suggestion of making rehabilitation free and create a separate agency for rehabilitation to give enough attention to the drug abuse problem.
Sotto plans to put up rehabilitation centers all over the country, if not all provinces, and all regions should have at least one center.
The former senator further explained that rehabilitation should be given free for drug dependents to bring them back to their families and community as productive and responsible individuals.
There are several techniques that are being used by the rehabilitation centers in the country, such as: Therapeutic Community, Faith-Based, Multi-Disciplinary, and the Twelve Steps Minnesota Model.
Sotto will put up a “matching treatment office” inside BDAT to identify the most effective rehabilitation technique that is best fit for the patient.
Sotto, the principal author of the creation of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002, chaired the DDB from July 2008 to November 2009.
