Campaign shift takes toll

We are working with Department of Budget and Management to increase the number of the plantilla positions, or at least the budget to allow us to hire on a contractual basis certain psychiatrists and psychologists.

DepartmenT of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III wanted to implement the public health approach on the drugs problem if only his agency has enough funds. ANALY LABOR

The public health approach to the campaign against narcotics that Vice President Leni Robredo had initiated as anti-drugs czarina will entail huge costs, Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

Duque added his agency is now asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for additional funds for the hiring of more health workers and the setting up of more rehabilitation centers across the country.

The matrix that Robredo unveiled in her first meeting with the Interagency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), which she now heads jointly with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Aaron Aquino, requires the establishment of at least one drug rehabilitation center in each of the 17 regions.

Duque told a forum yesterday the agency needs more psychologists and psychiatrists to comply with the new tack in the campaign based on the preference of Robredo.

“We are working with DBM to increase the number of the plantilla positions, or at least the budget to allow us to hire on a contractual basis certain psychiatrists and psychologists,” the Health chief said.

Duque said the government, even before the Vice President took charge of the campaign, has been working on the construction of at least one treatment and rehabilitation center per region, and it is “on the way to accomplish that.” However, the lack of manpower holds back the DoH in implementing a public health approach to drug addiction.

“I must be the first one to admit we don’t have enough human health resource to really provide the maximum rehabilitation care and services,” the DoH head said.

He added the department is part of ICAD, which works with local government units (LGU) to solve the illegal drug problem in the Philippines.

Duque noted that for the past 20 years, the DoH, through its Human Resource for Health Deployment Program, employs medical professionals and workers only through a contractual basis where they receive only a basic pay and no other benefits.

Under the new DBM rules, 26,035 government health workers are now entitled to pay bonuses.

Robredo had proposed the treatment of narcotics addiction as a “medical and sociological problem.”

“I do not see this as a problem of crime only. Our enemy here is not our citizen — it is drugs,” she said in her opening remarks during the anti-drug body’s meeting at the Office of the Vice President.

“Since our enemy is illegal drugs, we should also look at it not just using the lens of crime, or criminal justice, but also using the lens of health and the fact that addiction is a medical and a sociological problem,” she added.

Robredo said she supports an evidence-based strategy and approach in addressing drug addiction, which she recognized as “a serious problem that our country is facing.”

The Vice President, who called for ICAD’s convening, said she wanted the discussion to be a listening exercise for her so as to know where she would start as the body’s co-chair.