BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya (PIA) - Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the government should also exert more on the prevention, rehabilitation and prosecution aspects of the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

"We seem to be concentrating only on enforcement but we are not aggressive on the three aspects of our anti-illegal drugs campaign," he said.

Sotto who visited several local government units and its officials in Luzon over the weekend said prevention and rehabilitations aspects of the anti-illegal drugs campaign should also be on top of government efforts.

He said various rehabilitation approaches such as therapeutic, faith-based, eclectic, multi-disciplinary and the 12 Steps Minnesota programs should be applied to drug dependents based on their profiles.

Sotto said there is also a need to institutionalize the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DAREP) in schools involving schoolers in grades 5 to 7, teachers and parents to educate the young and instill responsibilities of parents and teachers inorder to prevent them from being drug dependents.

"Supply and demand reduction can be addressed if we also concentrate on the prevention, rehabilitation and prosecution aspects. We should have a 25 percent allocation effort and action on these three aspects so that we can have a 100 percent performance rating," he said.

Sotto who was the principal author of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) should have a strong backing from allied agencies to implement the rehabilitation, prevention and prosecution aspects.# (MDCT/BME/PIA Nueva Vizcaya)