PILAR, Bataan – The Bataan Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center at the foot of historic Mt. Samat here which was funded by the Department of Health and the Dangerous Drugs Board was inaugurated Monday.
Dr. Elizabeth Serrano, chief of hospital, said the center was budgeted for more than P50 million.
She said that they started from a 50-bed capacity in October of 2008 that increased to the present actual 220 beds.
Facilities in the 1.7-hectare center off er regular in-house program, outpatient treatment, after care treatment, medical and dental services, art room and prayer room and chapel for spiritual rehabilitation, Serrano said.
The center has a room where paintings and other forms of art of “residents,” as the rehabilitating drug dependents are called, are displayed.
She said that presently they have less than 90 residents and 300 outpatients. About 60 percent of the residents came from Bataan and the rest from various areas in the country.
“Karamihan ng admission were from the plea-bargaining agreement. Galing sa jail na nag-plead ng guilty,” Serrano said.
Residents undertake eight to 12 months of rehabilitation while the outpatients take four months.
Asked how many they have graduated in their 10 years of operation, Serrano said “libo na.”
The center in Barangay Liyang started from old buildings built in the 1970s by the Kabataang Barangay then headed by Imee Marcos, now Ilocos Norte governor, as training center for the youth.
