By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

FOR someone who has not experienced addiction, it is easy to give advice and encouragement. It is easy, too, to condemn and ostracize. It is not, for one who had experienced the same. Lorenzo E. Gabutina posted this realization:

“Recovery fr drug abduction is not a simple, linear process. It’s quite complicated. Ang daming sanga. So, this morning while joining a zoom meeting on addiction&recovery, I made some rough notes on my own. Key realization: recovery is a lifetime process. When the user decides to stop using, he is also actually choosing a life based on better values & beliefs. It requires a change of life. Key issue: how to execute recovery treatment at barangay level. Bottomline: when the user decides to stop using, hindi po mawawala agad ang adiksyon nya. Tatrabahuin nya – siya mismo, walang iba – araw araw ang kanyang pagbabago. It may take months or years.”

Gabutina, an artist, is a self-confessed drug user who has recovered and now serve as lecturer on addiction and recovery. He emphasizes that recovery is a long-drawn process, it encompasses many things. The decision to stop using is just the first step, the addiction does not stop abruptly, the person involved must work on it himself, the change is daily. It can take months or years. In 2021, he celebrated “30 years of being sober and drug-free”.

Among the many things that can bring about the change is the society we live in. A person who has decided to change is in a constant temptation in an environment where narco-politics operates. The chain of distribution is entrenched, protected by the influence and power of those who also decide the fate of the country.

This is where schools, religious institutions and communities become critical in the process of change. Change can also be inspired by the initiative of a dedicated person. In the case of Gabutina’s recovery, he wrote:

“He’s charismatic, down to earth and has a special place in his heart for addicts. We love him. Tinanggap nya kami ng buo ng walang paghuhusga. He started the drug addiction recovery program in the parish 5 years ago. His program was replicated in other parishes & barangays nationwide. In the picture are some of the recoverees who went through his recovery program in the parish. We love u Father Luciano Felloni! God bless po, Padre!”

Addiction, whether alcohol or drug abuse needs our concerted efforts. Former President Duterte was not able to stop the drug menace for six months as he promised during his campaign, not even within his six-year term. He had managed only to kill the tentacles but not the nerve center of the octopus. The complexity of the problem and the depth of its encroachment in Philippine socio-economic and political life is simply overwhelming.

Would President Bongbong Marcos be able to stop, or in the least, mitigate the impact of the drug menace? Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr. of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) called for the courtesy resignation of 429 generals from the Philippine National Police (PNP). In response, 23 Davao generals submitted their resignations, with a clarification from Major Eudisan Gultiano, spokesperson of the police regional office, “This is not a resignation in a legal sense…. This is meant to clear their names.”

Honor is a rare commodity these days. Good governance is a dying culture, corruption remains imbedded. Such is the environment waiting for an addict who has decided to quit.

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