Manila: The government will make education more accessible to include those undergoing rehabilitation for drug addiction, the education secretary said.

According to Department of Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis-Briones, plans are afoot to make the government’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) more accessible to include those who volunteer to undergo rehabilitation from drug addiction.

“Also among the priorities of the new administration (under President Rodrigo Duterte) is the expansion of ALS at the regional, national, and international levels,” she said.

The ALS is a programme started nearly ten years ago by the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to provide disadvantaged Filipinos who never had a chance to get a formal education an opportunity to improve their situation.

The government is currently in the middle of a campaign to stamp out the use of illegal drugs by its citizens. Drug addiction has been blamed as the root of criminal offences which include theft, violence and murder, among others.

According to the figures provided by the Dangerous Drugs Board on the profile of patients undergoing drug rehab in various private and government-funded rehabilitation centres in 2014, 47.59 per cent were unemployed, 27 per cent were workers/employees, 11.43 per cent were businessman or self-employed, eight per cent were out of school youths and four per cent were students.

The government had earlier announced plans for a massive rehabilitation programme for drug addicts across the country and it had identified several military camps in Luzon and in Mindanao as possible sites of rehab centres.

Meanwhile, senator Panfilo Lacson expressed concern of the number of cases of alleged summary execution carried out against so-called “drug pushers” since Duterte formally assumed authority as president on July 1, 2016.

Lacson, a former director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said that while he fully supports the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, the government should me mindful that the campaign is being waged at the cost of lives of people.

According to reports, more than 300 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed by vigilantes and police since the campaign started last July 1. Lacson however, said the figures are much bigger.

“Well-informed sources within the PNP said they are trying to validate figures amounting to some 600 fatalities from summary executions. This does not include those killed in legitimate police operations,” he said.

Duterte, prior to formally assuming the presidency, had warned that his anti-drugs campaign will be “bloody.”

“This is worrisome because it appears anyone can kill anybody as long as they are vigilantes,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said that personally, he sees a “drug free” Philippines as a distinct possibility with Duterte’s campaign if its momentum continues.

“We have never witnessed anything like this before. More than a hundred thousand (drug users and addicts) have already given themselves up and thousands more were arrested,” he said.