CEBU CITY -- From former drug users to City Hall workers.
The city government of Lapu-Lapu has hired two former drug personalities who surrendered and were eventually among those in the first batch who completed their community-based drug rehabilitation program (CBDRP).
Lapu-Lapu Mayor Junard ‘Ahong’ Chan offered 40-year-old Edwin, a father of five, and Jerry, 29, to work at the City Hall during their CDRP graduation last Thursday, August 11.
Jerry and Edwin were among the 13 drug surrenderees who graduated from the city-initiated CBDRP.
The city withheld the complete names of the two surrenderees to protect their privacies.
Out of the 13 surrendered, Jerry and Edwin were the only ones who have driver’s licenses that paved the way for their instant jobs at City Hall.
Jerry and Edwin will work under the city’s Clean and Green Department where they will drive tricycles which are being used to collect garbage in barangays.
“Biyae na ninyo ang inyong bisyo. Ang inyong bisyo karon serbisyo (Leave you vices. Your vice from now on is to provide service),” Chan told the 13 drug surrenderees during their graduation program.
Chan also handed P5,000 cash to each of the graduates as part of the after-care program of the City’s Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO).
The graduation and the giving of cash assistance was supervised by the City of Lapu-Lapu Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (CLOSAP) headed by its executive director Garry Lao.
Lao said they now have 338 applicants for CBDRP.
“Some of them voluntarily submitted for rehabilitation, while others were deprived of liberty and opted for plea-bargaining,” Lao said.
Once they complete the City’s CBDRP, the drug surrenderees would be assessed again if they qualify for the city’s livelihood after-care program.