Send drug addicts to N. Ecija center
The Supreme Court has ordered judges in drug courts nationwide to refer drug dependents to the new rehabilitation facility in Nueva Ecija instead of to local centers. File
MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court has ordered judges in drug courts nationwide to refer drug dependents to the new rehabilitation facility in Nueva Ecija instead of to local centers.
In a one-page order issued last June 6, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez directed regional trial court judges to refer “as far as practicable” drug abusers and dependents who are ordered to undergo treatment and rehabilitation to the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center at Fort Magsaysay in Palayan City.
The high court issued the directive after a recommendation and request by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
“Considering that most government drug treatment and rehabilitation centers are already overcrowded, the Office of the Court Administrator hereby enjoins all concerned judges to refer, as far as practicable, drug users and dependents to the Mega Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija,” read the court circular.
The center, a major project of the Duterte administration that opened in November last year, is a 10,000-bed facility and experty to attend to the treatment and rehabilitation of drug users and pushers. Its construction was funded by Huang Rulun, a Chinese real estate trader from Binondo.
Drug rehabilitation at the mega center involves three phases: self-discovery program for two weeks, reorientation and psycho-therapy treatment for 10 weeks, and self-modification actualization for another eight weeks.
The government earlier bared plans to build three more drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities in various parts of the country.
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