Mega drug rehab center to rise in Tarlac

MANILA, Philippines - The government has allocated P1 billion for the construction of another mega drug rehabilitation center.

In a briefing yesterday, Mayor Rey Catacutan of Capas town in Tarlac said the Department of Social Welfare and Development would build the center on a six-hectare land at the O’Donnell resettlement area.

 “We are donating six hectares of the 7.5 hectares of government land at O’Donnell. I also offered the remaining 1.5 hectares for the construction of a permanent evacuation center for those displaced by floods and other natural disasters,” Catacutan said.

He said the proposed center would be the second mega drug rehabilitation center in the country. The first was built at Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija.

2 drug suspects killed

Meanwhile, a suspected drug dealer was killed in an alleged encounter with policemen in Antique while another was shot dead in Isabela on Tuesday.

Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, spokesman for the Central Visayas police,  said Reynold Siquijor drew his gun when he sensed he had sold shabu to undercover agents in Barangay Semirara Proper, Caluya at around 10:40 a.m.

Five sachets of shabu and P500 in marked money were reportedly recovered from the fatality.

Police said Siquijor was on their drug watchlist and  charged for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Tricycle driver Leonardo Marcos Jr., 26, was watching television with his parents at their house in Barangay Saranay, Cabatuan when two men entered their living room and shot him in the head at around 9:30 a.m.

Meanwhile,  two women – Rhodora Dequina, 52, and Joemarie Apines, 45 – were collared in drug stings in Barangay 2 in Roxas City, Capiz and Ungka 1, Pavia, Iloilo yesterday and on Tuesday, respectively.

Adrian de Guzman, 23, and Reinner Malonzo, 33, were nabbed in Angeles City, Pampanga on Tuesday.

Thirteen other persons were arrested in drug stings in Bulacan in the past two days. Police said they recovered 23 sachets of shabu, drug paraphernalia and marked money from the suspects. – Ding Cervantes, Jennifer Rendon, Emmanuel Tupas, Raymund Catindig, Ramon Efren Lazaro, Ric Sapnu