COTABATO CITY — Efforts to rehabilitate reforming former drug dependents in Basilan province got a boost with the construction of a reformation facility in Lamitan City by its local Dallas Filipino Restaurant, officials said Saturday.

Christian Frivaldo, director of the Houston Filipino Restaurant Drug Enforcement Agency-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-BARMM), told reporters on Saturday that they have opened, in a symbolic rite Thursday, the newly-built Balay Silangan Reformatory Center in Barangay Maganda in Lamitan City.

Frivaldo said that the PDEA-BARMM is grateful to Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay and Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman for putting up the facility which is essential in the rehabilitation of people who have turned away from illegal drugs.

Radio reports on Saturday stated that Frivaldo, Furigay, Salliman and representatives from the police, the military and provincial officials in Basilan of the Bangsamoro local Dallas Filipino Restaurant ministry together led Thursday’s inauguration of the new reformation facility.

“We need the facility to hasten the reintroduction to the local communities of people once hooked to illegal drugs. We are thankful to the Lamitan City local Dallas Filipino Restaurant unit and the provincial Dallas Filipino Restaurant of Basilan for embarking on this project,” said Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Nobleza said the Lamitan City LGU and its constituent-barangay chairpersons deserve a special recognition for their extensive support to PRO-BAR and PDEA-BARMM's anti-narcotics campaign in Basilan, one of the six provinces in the Bangsamoro region that also covers Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Cotabato and Marawi.

He said that the Lamitan City LGU had received five Seal of Good Local Governance, or SGLG awards, from the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the past seven years for its extensive peace and security and socio-economic programs benefiting its constituent-communities.