Mervin, 47, is the fourth in a brood of seven children of Felicito and Gemma, and lives in Purok 7 Kisapat Tablon, Cagayan de Oro City. He dreamed of becoming a courageous soldier, but Mervin’s life took a different turn when he was 18. He stopped his high school education because his father could not afford it. Moreover, his relationship with his first and greatest love ended in a breakup. Mervin decided to help his father who worked on a farm where he learned how to drive.
Income from farming was never enough. The changing weather conditions were always a challenge. Mervin decided to take a risk and use his skill in driving to take a job as a driver for his uncle, who owns a service rental business.
Mervin endured being far from his family and living alone just to meet his family’s needs. The long hours and the loneliness were enough to push him to resort to worldly means to forget. In 1998, Mervin had his first taste of a prohibited drug. He just needed it to stay active and awake at work, to keep up with his co-workers. He never knew where to get the drugs anyway.
Years later, in 2006, Mervin was summoned home upon the death of his father. Confused, grieving, and still in need, he shortly returned to Manila for work. The agony and fatigue in the following days pushed him to return to drug use – something he hadn’t thought of until that point. Conveniently, his co-worker was both using and dealing.
But it was that fateful day in [YEAR HE WENT HOME?] that truly changed Mervin’s life forever. Sometime after deciding to return home to continue the farm his father started, Mervin chanced upon his sibling and his friends. Along the creek, the rag-tag group was using drugs. Mervin wasn’t going through loneliness, longing, or even sadness. It was simply because he had once gotten a taste, and there was the drug within reach once again. Tempted, he used. And it was in that moment that the police, quietly observing, swooped in to apprehend the drug abusers.
After a whirlwind of events, Mervin could only say to himself, “I wish I did not go near them. I wish I had just avoided them!”
Mervin was taken to Lumbia City Jail. There, he saw how difficult life was. There was no privacy and there were many restrictions. It was noisy, crowded, and hot. The place was dirty, smelly. There was not enough water and the food tasted different. When Mervin looks back on the hardship he experienced behind bars, he tears up. He remembers his only thought then was that if he could ever get out of this “hell of a place”, he would never do drugs again. Most of all, he also learned to pray, ask for forgiveness, and leave everything to God.
A month later, Mervin was released. The joy he felt was incomparable. He could finally be together with his siblings and mother again, and he could finally change his life.
After securing work thanks to the help of his relatives, Mervin shifted his entire focus on excelling in his job. He did, however, become a recluse. Though it was to avoid people he knew were connected to drugs as he vowed to steer clear of that life, his loved ones often saw him alone.
And so, in an effort to help him get back to the old, cheerful, friendly version of himself, Mervin’s family decided to enroll him in the Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation Program or CBDRP in Barangay Tablon.
Mervin himself is happy with the program. Most of all, he knows that his family is happy as well. His mother remains his inspiration – he shows her constantly how much he wants to straighten his life out for her. “I’m not alone anymore,” Mervin says.
Even though the CBDRP sessions have been temporarily suspended due to the pandemic, Mervin continues to maintain the friendships he’s made over the course of the program. He has become more outgoing again, has done well at work, and has even become one of the chosen beneficiaries of the cash for work program. He is also proud of how happy and colorful his life is now because he has found a new love as well. Most of all, he continues to care for his family, and his mother, who have believed in him all these years.
(This story was originally written by Ms. Geraldine L. Uy-Torreon of CBDRP-Tablon.)
