There will always be a second chance for those who are willing to change. In Olongapo City, drug users who surrendered to local officials gets redemption by being trained and later employed as casket makers.
Olongapo City Mayor Rolen Paulino inaugurated the Casket Manufacturing and Training Facility on Thursday, September 29, which was built largely from the mayor's social development fund.
The facility will help train surenderers of "Oplan Tokhang," one of the elements of the Duterte administration's war on drugs, which involves policemen going house-to-house and knock on doors of suspected drug users and dealings to give them a chance to change their ways.
According to Paulino, it is wiser to train and hire drug surrenderers to make caskets than give each family a burial assistance of P5,000.
The facility, which is located at the city hall's engineering complex, aims to finish 4 caskets a day with "reformist-workers" who will be trained by seasoned casket makers from the towns of San Matias and Santo Tomas in Pampanga.
Angelito Caparas, 44, a former welder and electrician who surrendered during "Oplan Tokhang," was among the first trainees. He admitted that he doesn't do carpentry but is willing to learn for the better.
Paulino also warned the so-called reformists not to return to drugs or they might end up using the caskets they're going to make.
No pun intended.
Source: Reuters Manila Bulletin
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