How to address the drug abuse problem in Bohol : A Proposal

BLDF proposes that the project have two phases:

Phase 1: the establishment of the physical infrastructure and the recruitment/appointment of appropriate staff for the the Center; and

Phase 2: the start-up operations of the Center taking into account the need to reach as many drug abuse victims as possible so as to create impact in the overall situation.

The objective for Phase 1 is to establish the Center with the required facilities and staffing. Phase 2 will aim for the full operations of the Center, reaching target clientele among the poor and disadvantaged families, while ensuring sustainability for the center.

BLDF seeks to be part of these two phases of the project and participate towards sustainable operations starting on Phase 3 after a comprehensive assessment of  the previous two phases.

Strategy

It is proposed that NDRC Davao, which is a noted rehabilitation and psychological services facility with a pool of medical experts in the field and an international network of similar institutions, considers NDRC Bohol as an affiliate and part of its corporate social responsibility, In this way, NDRC Davao will be able to expand its outreach to clients who belong to the relatively disadvantaged sectors of the population.

BLDF will make available the use of a piece of land in Baclayon appropriate for the facility patterned after BDRC Davao. Its network of development experts and volunteers, starting from the predecessor UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center, will be made available in terms of related areas such as poverty reduction and sustainable development, as well as expertise in undertaking advocacy and fund raising campaign in support of the proposed Phase 1 in the establishment of the center.

Once this is approved, BLDF will organize formally a Secretariat for the fund-raising activities taking into account the need to design the infrastructure to be put on the donated land. The design will be the basis for infrastructure cost will be part of determining the target for the fund raising campaign.

BLDF will organize a Technical Working Group from among interested stakeholders of the project, namely, Holy Name University, which has a Psychology Department; a consortium of faith-based organizations keen on development issues; and a cluster of Local Government Units (LGUs) within the catchment area of the facility; private sector entities in Tagbilaran City and the municipalities who have expressed concern about the drug menace in the province and are willing to help put up a relevant rehabilitation facility.

While the fund-raising and infrastructure building activities are on-going, the Technical Working Group will proceed with the recruitment and training of the core staff in coordination with NDRC Davao.

Key Activities

The preparatory activities will include the following:

 Consult with NDRC Director and/or NDRC Davao on how to proceed with the proposed project.

 Revise the draft Project Concept as appropriate.

 Organize a project core team to review the concept prior to discussing the revised project concept with NDRC Davao.

 Show the project core team the proposed site to be donated as site of NDRC Bohol.

 Have the architect visit the proposed site in Bohol.

 Have the architect visit NDRC Davao for his orientation on the design of the facility

 Make the architect prepare a design and costing for the proposed facility.

 Organize a Technical Working Group to work on the program of the Center and the required
        staffing.

 Prepare the costing in running the Center for one year.

 Prepare an Advocacy and Fund Raising Campaign for NDRC Bohol with advice from NDRC  
        Davao.

 Conduct a joint meeting of the Secretariat with the NDRC Davao on the draft work plan to be
        prepared.

NDRC Davao will provide advice in the planning and implementation of Phases 1 & 2 of the project.

BLDF will assume the responsibility of organizing the Secretariat and the other relevant committees for the implementation of Phases 1 and 2. It will initially form a core team to liaise with NDRC Davao in the formulation of the work plan for Advocacy and Fund Raising.

Note: BLDF invites comments or feedbacks to this proposal.

Nestor M. Pestelos 
President, Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc.
NMP/24 Dec 2014/8.14 p.m. 

Need to address the drug menace in Bohol

In recent months, newspaper headlines in Tagbilaran City and the province of Bohol brought to prominence what has been suspected by the public all along – that the province has seemingly become a major transshipment point for illegal drugs and that drug pushers and abusers have increased quite significantly over the last few years. More alarmingly, drug syndicates are generally perceived to be operating in the province with knowledge of, if not connivance, with duly constituted authorities.

Drug-related killings and other heinous crimes, such as rape (in one case, a mother was raped by her own son who is a drug addict); physical assault, theft and robbery. More than a dozen drug pushers have been reportedly shot dead in broad daylight, in busy streets, of Tagbilaran City and in the towns by unknown assassins in motorcyles riding in tandem.

Whether by covert police operations or by vigilantes, these killings damage the traditionally peaceful Bol-anon way of life. They do not reflect the vast reservoir of social capital and community cohesiveness that Bohol is noted for both in te country and abroad. It negates what has been vaunted about as our brand of life in Bohol.

Pursuing this as key strategy to address the current drug menace will not be effective. A multi-pronged approach is needed which may include the following:

-a comprehensive public awareness campaign aimed at enlisting people and institutions at the grassroots level in the fight against drug abuse;

-a committed police force well-equipped to combat syndicates who use illegal means and intimidation to expand their network of  drug pushers and other shady agents in every sector of society; and, equally important,

-a rehabilitation center which will combine community-based approaches with cost-effective clinical methods and a humanitarian and eclectic strategy to deal with hundreds of drug users who seem to inhabit practically all the barangays in the province whose presence threatens social stability and the attainment of peace and progress and represents a sheer waste in human resources.

Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF) and its predecessor organization, the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC), have a combined experience of more than thirty years in efforts to address poverty in ways that enhance partnership with local communities and institutions. More recently, it has shifted its program focus from implementing a community-based shelter assistance project for families rendered homeless by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the province to the promotion of informal employment and sustainable livelihood among the youth, particularly those who are out of school or those in Alternative Learning Systems (ALS).

In less than a year of implementing projects for the out-of-school youth, BLDF has become convinced that it cannot ignore the drug abuse problem which is causing deaths and injuries to a growing number of people and negating in the process, the gains made in previous years in development planning and implementation.

BLDF seeks to be part of the evolving plans and programs to combat a growing menace in society. Otherwise, the achievements in combatting poverty and ensuring sustainable development in the province will be for naught.

More next post. 

Memoirs of an Old Warrior or Development Worker?

7.28 a.m. Mil Sevilla-Reyes, our former high school classmate and close friend, has assured us she is on track for the release of the 2nd edition of the book by the first quarter of 2015. She has actually taken a big chunk of the work regarding this edition, which is being made possible by a donation from Mrs. Corazon Verzosa-Lanuza, her former student at our Alma Mater, the Quezon Provincial High School in Lucena City. As announced before, this edition will have Part 2 which will deal with our experience in implementing a pilot project for families made homeless by the earthquake which hit Bohol on 15 Oct 2013.

The donor and Mil, along with some other alumni,agree that the two-part edition can motivate the high school students to appreciate poetry and development while still at the secondary school. Since Mil was for many years an English teacher here and abroad, she knows precisely how the book can achieve this objective. Due to the bulk of work she has been doing for this book, I have proposed to her and the team that she should be considered a co-author rather than solely editor of this edition.

I hope to help her out more significantly during this time prior to publication. The house build project our Foundation has achieved its objective of piloting a community-based approach to providing shelter assistance to families rendered homeless by the 15 Oct 2013 earthquake.

My close friends have advised me to take a break from active development work not only to preserve my health but also, some say, my sanity, by limiting myself to giving advice to young people rather than do the field work myself. A sensible advice, actually, except that these young people are too much in a hurry and do not have the patience in working with people at the periphery.

Indeed it will be quite challenging to work with young people in projects that can put to good use their gadgets and expertise in social media in the service of pro-poor development. But, perhaps,
at age 72, I may not have the stamina and the mental alertness of someone at age 27 to understand how these new technologies work to achieve cost-effectiveness and efficiency in projects. As everyone suspects, as our young consultant Emily Pedersen and the equally young overseas volunteers, Marit Meijer, Arno Djikstra and Annelies van der Maas, seem to validate, I am good in talking and can give all the priests and pastors we work with a good run for their Sunday collections, but I may not have the goodies to understand all the tools of the digital age.

Hence, my close friends from college and the post-college Bohemian and later, activist era, have suggested that I write the magnum opus I have been threatening to write during the past ten years or so. They suggested as title, "Memoirs of an Old Warrior." Well, OK, I am game to this suggestion. I suspect this is related to this gift of mobile recorder from my friend Hilmy from the Maldives.

All my close friends after high school seem to arrive at a consensus that I it would be good, if I talk to a voice recorder, rather than to them, so that I can spare their eardrums and the same time, come up with a book of lessons or what-not and perhaps help create in the process, generations of committed development workers - if ever they can forget their gadgets for thirty minutes and thirty-five seconds a day to read an Old Man's tall tales!

Good idea, actually, something to chew on when I am not talking. But first thing first: Mil Sevilla-Reyes and the team should finish first the second edition of the Old Warrior and Other Poems. Otherwise, we do not something to link up with to justify the new book.