Fil-Chinese businessmen funding next mega drug rehab center

Pia Ranada

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Fil-Chinese businessmen funding next mega drug rehab center

ACE R MORANDANTE

Funds for the center, to rise in Bohol, are sourced by a Cebu-based foundation supportive of President Duterte

MANILA, Philippines – After Chinese tycoon Huang Rulun, Filipino-Chinese businessmen will be the next to fund a mega drug rehabilitation center under the Duterte administration.

The center will rise in a military camp in Carmen, Bohol.

The donations from these businessmen will be coursed through a Cebu-based foundation, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr said.

“Kausaban Foundation in Cebu City was responsible [for] sourcing the money for the construction of the rehabilitation center,” Evasco told Rappler on Friday, January 6.

The organization is composed of Filipino entrepreneurs, some of Chinese descent.

The contributions were made due to efforts of one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s envoys to China, Fernando “Ding” Borja, who hails from Bohol. Borja accompanied the President during his state visit to China last September.

“I think we really have to extend our deep appreciation and gratitude to Mr Borja who really facilitated the support of the Chinese businessmen,” Evasco was quoted as saying by The Bohol Chronicle on Thursday.

Aside from the Cebu group, big corporations like Consunji-owned DMCI, Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corporation, Ayala, and Mega World have committed funds for more drug rehabilitation centers, said Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno.

Cebu firm to build

The Bohol drug rehabilitation center will be built by Cebu architectural firm ArchiGlobal Inc, according to Malacañang.

“The Department of Health signed the Memorandum of Agreement yesterday, January 4, 2017 with ArchiGlobal to build the next Mega Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center inside the military camp in Carmen, Bohol,” Presidential Spokesman Undersecretary Ernesto Abella said on Thursday, January 5.

ArchiGlobal, owned and headed by Filipino architect Michael Torres, specializes in architecture, interior design, and master-planning.

It was the firm behind several major real estate projects in Cebu like Apple One Equicom Tower and Grand Residences Cebu.

Abella added that ArchiGlobal Inc has conceptualized and designed “over 40 hectares of land development of residential condominiums and master-planned residential communities” and “over 150 square meters of floor areas for commercial and mixed-use building developments.”

Initiatives for another high-capacity drug rehabilitation center comes after the Palace said the government is ready to more actively implement the “second phase” of the war on drugs which will focus on health and rehabilitation.

The Bohol mega drug rehab center will be the second such center under the Duterte administration.

The first is a 10,000-bed center being constructed in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, donated by Chinese billionaire Huang Rulun.

President Duterte himself attended the inauguration of its first phase in November 2016. – Rappler.com

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Pia Ranada

Pia Ranada is Rappler’s Community Lead, in charge of linking our journalism with communities for impact.