“The participation of families, communities, and all members of society is needed to achieve milestones in the drug prevention and drug rehabilitation initiatives of the government.”

This was emphasized by DSWD Assistant Secretary Anton Hernandez who handles the drug rehabilitation efforts of the Department, during a forum entitled “Family Forum: Discussing the Drug Issue and Establishing the Family Café” held over the weekend in Makati City.

The family forum was attended by representatives of faith-based organizations; non-government organizations (NGOs); local government units (LGUs); business groups; media; and the academe.

“We cannot underscore the importance of the involvement of families and communities in the fight to stamp out the drug menace. It is not only the police authorities who should be involved – in fact, the support of ordinary citizens is more important to monitor and maintain efforts to protect our communities from illegal drugs. When whole communities work together, we can help more of those who are affected by drug addiction and/or engaged in the illegal drugs trade are provided options to undergo rehabilitation,” Asec. Hernandez said.

Asec. Hernandez also discussed the role of the Department in the overall anti-drug campaign of Government, stressing that “focus must be on interventions for the transformation and rehabilitation of drug surrenderers/users.”

“It’s the Department of Health (DOH) that is primarily the lead when it comes to the actual physical rehabilitation of drug surrenderers, but the DSWD is prepared to provide what assistance it can from among its existing programs so that surrenderers can get a headstart on their efforts to start anew,” he said. “We want to help drug surrenderers become productive and useful members of society; for instance, they can first become area volunteers in charge of maintaining the cleanliness of communities. Eventually they can learn about disaster preparedness and be volunteers in the barangays who inform the rest of the community of resilience against disasters. We have to work together to prove that there is life after drugs,” he said.

The over all anti-drug program of the government has three pillars with DSWD leading the third Pillar.

These are:

Pillar I: The Department of Health (DOH) as the lead agency along with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), PNP and DILG, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) in the creation of a data base/profile of the surrenderers. The screening and referral for appropriate services to include but not limited to drug testing, treatment and rehabilitation, mental health facility/medical center/hospital and provision of support i.e. education, skills training, job opportunities, psycho-social, medical, etc.

Pillar II: The Community Based Rehabilitation Pillar will be led by the Ugnayan ng Barangay at Simbahan (UBAS) along with other line agencies such as the PNP, the DSWD, the Technical and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the DILG and the DOH. The objective of this Pillar is to design a community-based and holistic recovery and rehabilitation programs to make the community (barangay level) a rehabilitation center for drug user/pusher surrenderers.

Pillar III: The Aftercare, Reintegration and Transformation Support for Recovering Drug Dependents will be led by the DSWD with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the DILG, the DOH, DOJ-Parole and Probation Administration, the Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Dept. of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Technological and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).  These agencies will work together to provide a wide-array of aftercare services to recovering drug dependents to strengthen their rehabilitation and reintegration.

Other resource person during the forum were Mr. Jason Wong, Foundation of Dad’s for Life, who discussed the importance of strengthening the family; and Mr. Dan Wong, Executive Director of the New Charts Mission (Singapore) who shared their experience in successfully rehabilitating drug surrenderers in Singapore. ###