LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The Pangasinan provincial board has authorized Gov. Amado “Pogi” I. Espino III to sign and accept a donation of a two-hectare lot in Burgos town as a site for a drug rehabilitation center in this province.
As stated in Provincial Resolution No. 275-2016 approved by the board in its regular session on Monday, the lot “can be used primarily by the province as a venue for rehabilitation center in order to cater to and respond to the needs of those who are to undergo treatment and change their old ways of drug dependency, to being drug free and go back to the normal society.”
In 1992, former Burgos town mayor Demetrio Cabiles, who was the owner of the property, donated the lot to the provincial government so it could erect a new drug rehab center.
Cabiles had executed a Deed of Donation, with the marital consent of his wife Belen, but the donation could not be completed becaue then-Gov. Aguedo F. Agbayani did not sign the document on behalf of the province.
The deed stated that if the rehab center does not materialize within three years upon the document’s execution, the property would revert to the Cabiles family without needing any authority, clearance, judicial action or power.
But with the death of Cabiles, Provincial Legal Officer Geraldine U. Baniqued said Governor Espino instructed Col. Luchinvar Oro to meet with Cabiles’ lone heir on behalf of the provincial government.
The heir signified his intention to carry out the donation of the property to the provincial government, Baniqued said, but the latter had to clear the air in terms of its legality.
The resolution, authored by Sanggunian Panlalawigan Members Jeremy Agerico Rosario, Clemente Arboleda, Jr. and Noel C. Bince, would kick off the program of the Espino administration to help drug surrenderers reform their lives, SP presiding officer Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim Jr. said.
Board Member Rosario noted that putting up a rehab center in Pangasinan is parallel with the national government’s program against illegal drugs. He said Gov. Espino will look for ways to erect the center, including tapping the support of national agencies like the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Department of Health.