Progress and Promise: 2024 Begins for ISSUP Philippines

The beginning of 2024 shows promise for the ISSUP Philippine Chapter as it continues to work in the background to bring its planned events and activities into fruition. In the month of January, representatives met with various organizations to discuss the Chapter’s role in furthering a broad swathe of its advocacies.

In fact, the very first activity of the Chapter was to meet with the Chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Secretary Catalino Salandanan Cuy to present our planned activities for the year 2024. The core activities presented to him are the Chapter’s heavy involvement in the UNODC ATI Program; an online series of INEP training; and the ongoing WHO Project awarded to the Chapter. These were met with approval from the Secretary and his blessings for the Chapter to proceed with haste to implement these activities as soon as possible. In pursuit of that, the Chapter continues to communicate with its collaborators, preparing for the earliest day that each activity may be commenced.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mariano Hembra presented in the Asia-Pacific Harm Reduction Forum at the National Taiwan Normal University last January 20, 2024. He spoke on harm reduction in the field of substance use, on the current state of harm reduction in the Philippines, on the opportunities and challenges in harm reduction in SEA and conducted a half-day training in harm reduction to forum participants from across Asia. Following his participation and initiative, the Chapter was able to seize the an opportunity to expand education and awareness on harm reduction in the Philippines, an especially important role as the notion of Harm Reduction is still in its infancy in the country.

Beyond that, the Chapter was also invited to the ‘Advocacy and Strategic Communications Planning Workshop for Alcohol’ held by the Sin Tax Coalition last January 30 to February 1, 2024. Here, Dr. Paul Lawrence Filomeno represented the Chapter in dialogues with peer organizations to strategize on the best strategies for communication in order to advance its advocacy for higher taxation on alcohol products in the Philippines.

The ISSUP Philippine Chapter continues to prepare activities for 2024 other than those mentioned above. All addiction professionals should look forward to the coming months!