House augments drug rehab budget by P240 million

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has augmented the proposed funds for the government’s drug war next year by P250 million although, this time, the focus is on rehabilitation.

In the 2020 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) transmitted to the Senate earlier this month, the lower house added the amount to the proposed budget of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) to build more community-based rehabilitation centers nationwide.

Funding for the drug war operations has significantly decreased since 2018. Based on the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress, the Department of Budget and Management cut the budget of the DDB by P20 million, from P383.5 million this year to P366 million for 2020.

If approved by the Senate and the bicameral conference on the 2020 GAB, the budget of the DDB would increase to P616 million next year or P233 million higher than its budget this year.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano cited the need to boost the rehabilitation aspect of the drug war, which he admitted had met “a lot of criticism around the world.”

“We have community-based rehabilitation centers that are very comprehensive… Rehab centers should be community-based and not regional or national because studies show that (this) results in better recovery and has more success in preventing those who underwent rehab from going back to drug use,” he explained.

In 2017, President Duterte decided to transfer the operations for the war on drugs from the Philippine National Police (PNP) to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) following allegations of police abuse, human rights violations and killings of innocent civilians during drug operations.

Congress then removed the P1.4-billion budget for the PNP’s Double Barrel and Masa Masid projects and transferred P1.2 billion in drug war funds to PDEA in the 2018 budget.

But last August, the President said he has given the PNP “billions” to boost their intelligence operations for the drug war.

In the 2019 budget, the PNP was given P61.05 million for intelligence activities while P681.3 million was allocated for criminal investigation and other related confidential activities.

The PNP’s drug war got embroiled in controversy again recently as a Senate investigation revealed the alleged recycling of illegal drugs by police officials tagged as “ninja cops.”