Temporary ‘Bahay Silangan’ site eyed in Lumbia
Cagayan de Oro City Hall offered the Tahanan sa Kabataan facility in Barangay Lumbia as a temporary site for the proposed Bahay Silangan rehabilitation center for drug offenders in Cagayan de Oro City.
Acting City Administrator Teddy Sabuga-a made the proposal during the Jan. 14 meeting of the Cagayan de Oro Anti-Drug Abuse Council (CADAC) presided by Councilor Romeo Calizo at the Patrick Cronan Hall of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.
Sabuga-a offered the site prior to taking a one-month medical leave in response to an appeal by Rhyselle Descallar, head of the Oro Citizens Wellness and Development Center for a Bahay Silangan facility to house and rehabilitate their clients.
‘About 48 percent of our case involve violators of Section 5 (sale, trading, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) or pushing, not even drug users. So I hope that the (CADAC) can help us set up a Bahay Silangan,” Descallar told those who attended the council’s first meeting of the year.
She said a Bahay Silangan center can house these drug offenders separately to prevent them from being temptress to sell drugs to recovering former users housed in community drug rehabilitation centers in the city’s barangays.
Agent Joerick ‘Rex’ Tacal of the regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-10) voiced support for the Bahay Silangan center along with daily visitations to recovering former users as preventive measures to complement their war against illegal drug trafficking.
Councilor Calizo, who also chairs the 19th City Council’s public order and safety committee, also called on the PDEA-10 to intensify their crackdown on the mid-tier pushers in order to pressure and eventually capture those primarily responsible for the illegal drug trade in the city.
#CDOCityHallTeamwork/Videos, photos and text by SC
