For some drug users in the Philippines, rehab means making coffins

OLONGAPO, Philippines, Oct 10 (Reuters) Some drug users seeking to avoid becoming a bloody statistic in Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on narcotics, are going into a rehabilitation program that teaches them how to make coffins.

More than 700,000 drug users and pushers have registered with the authorities in a process termed "surrendering", but there are few programmes or facilities to help most of them.

But in Olongapo, a city of 220,000 three hours north of Manila, drug users are taught carpentry skills and paid 5,000 Philippine pesos (103 dollars) a month to build wooden coffins as part of the local government's livelihood and rehabilitation programme.