CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija — Gauging from each drug addict reformed after months of treatment, the medical chief of the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (Mega DATRC) said it is well worth the efforts of all stakeholders in the year-old facility in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija.
Dr. Nelson Dancel, DATRC medical chief, noted that staff and personnel have wholeheartedly worked together to help each “resident” reform and be able to productively return to community.
Dancel said that 101 former drug dependents have been sent to the mainstream society in two send-off ceremonies — 54 on Aug. 4, and 47 on Sept. 28, this year.
The third send-off will be held on Nov. 29 to coincide with the facility’s first year anniversary.
There are 535 residents in the facility at present, but Dancel did not disclose how many will graduate on that day.
The DATRC, inaugurated by President Rodrigo Duterte as an important component of the government’s war against hard drugs in November last year, was donated by a Chinese philanthropist and established on a 10-hectare property of the Department of National Defense (DND), particularly the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division here.
It is being managed by the Department of Health while the provincial government of Nueva Ecija provides security. (Marilyn Galang/PNA)
