Monthly allowance awaits Davao drug users in rehab

DAVAO CITY — Drug addicts die young, but in this city, many have perished in the hands of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), a shadowy vigilante group targeting drug pushers and addicts.

The vigilantes have been allegedly so successful in tracking down and killing suspected drug dealers and users that more than 200 of them have surrendered to authorities here and even vowed in an oath-taking ceremony before Mayor Rodrigo Duterte not to get hooked on illegal substances again.

To help drug addicts overcome their habit, Duterte announced that the local government would provide facilities and a P2,000 monthly allowance to those who would take their rehabilitation seriously.

Duterte ordered the immediate renovation of a building inside the city police headquarters, which will be used as a temporary rehabilitation center.

"Those who surrendered shall undergo proper processing, including testing, to determine if they are really drug addicts and not just opportunists who want to take advantage of the monthly allowance," Duterte said in his weekly radio program yesterday.

Aside from the drug tests, those who gave themselves in will be made to report daily to the police stations in their respective areas.

"We have to institute a certain procedure to make sure they would not go back to their habit. We shall teach them some skills so they will not engage in the illegal drug trade again," the mayor said.

He warned those who still have not surrendered that the law would get them some day if the vigilantes fail to do them in.