AFP to use Ecija rehab for barracks, training

DAVAO CITY – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will convert the 10,000-bed mega drug treatment and rehabilitation center in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija into a barracks and training facility if President Duterte formally turns it over to the military.

Duterte earlier said he is giving the center to the military because only a few hundred drug dependents have actually enrolled to use it to kick the habit.

“If that is what the President wants, the AFP could make good use of the facility for barracks, training and other activities of the military in the area,” AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla told The

STAR.

The Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation, where the mega center is located, is considered to be the largest military reservation in the Philippines and a key training facility of the Philippine Army.

It is also designated as the AFP National Training Center for upgrading and training battalion sized units, producing more than 72 Army and 12 Marine battalions in just six years.

The Department of Health was supposed to run the facility. Its data showed that only 663 drug dependents have so far been admitted at the center, a majority of them from the National Capital Region, Region 3 and Region 4-B. It also showed that most were unemployed while others were tricycle drivers and construction workers. At least one was identified as a barangay captain.

Health Undersecretary Roger Tong-an said 60 drug dependents, which comprised the third batch of patients who underwent treatment at the mega center, are set to graduate on Nov. 29, in time for the facility’s first founding anniversary.

Tong-an said the dependents stayed there from four to six months to undergo rehabilitation.

Former Dangerous Drugs Board chair Dionisio Santiago earlier said building the mega rehab was a mistake, pointing out that a smaller communitybased rehabilitation center would have done the job.