Mangudadatu mulls P50-million Maguindanao drug rehab center

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The governor of Maguindanao allocated P50 million for the construction of a provincial jail and rehabilitation facility for drug dependents in support of Malacañang’s anti-narcotics thrusts.

Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu on Wednesday said the project will be bankrolled with money from the more than P1 billion development loan his office had availed from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

The facility shall operate both as a provincial jail and a drug rehabilitation outfit, he said.

Among those who helped Mangudadatu plan the setting up of the facility was provincial administrator Wahab Tunga, a civil engineer, and human rights lawyer Israelito Torreon, a legal adviser to the governor.

“This center shall have special reformatory programs like spiritual, social and livelihood interventions for prospective wards to really reform and become part of the mainstream again,” Mangudadatu said.

He said the proposed provincial jail shall have a livelihood training facility and worship sites.

The governor first announced the plan at the sideline of a meeting Wednesday morning of the regional peace and order council (RPOC) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The meeting was held at the ARMM’s Office of the Regional Governor in Cotabato City. It was presided over by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, chairman of RPOC, whose members include all five provincial governors in the autonomous region.

Vital concerns, including the security woes now besetting the island province of Sulu, a known sanctuary of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf, were discussed during the meeting.

Two RPOC members, Chief Superintendent Agripino Javier of the ARMM police and Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division had both expressed support to the plan of Mangudadatu.

“It can help reform people hooked to drugs. It is a project worth supporting,” Javier said.

Mangudadatu said the jail and rehabilitation center shall be built on a strategic spot in Buluan town, the new provincial capital of Maguindanao.

The Mangudadatu administration is presently constructing a provincial capitol in Buluan using a fraction of the provincial government’s loan from LBP.

Mangudadatu and his younger sibling, Khadafe, who is an incumbent member of the ARMM’s 24-member Regional Assembly, touted as the “Little Congress” of the autonomous region, are actively supporting Malacañang’s anti-narcotics thrusts.

“We eagerly support the anti-drugs campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu said a big fraction of their LBP loan is earmarked for agricultural interventions needed to improve the productivity of peasants in the province.

“If they gain enough from their farming activities, no one from among them would venture into illegal activities such as vending of drugs for additional income,” he said.