MANILA - The Mega Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Nueva Ecija, a key project under President Duterte's war on drugs, currently houses only 137 recovering drug users, just a little over 1 percent of its 10, 000-bed capacity, the Department of Health revealed Tuesday.

Health Secretary Janet Paulyn Ubial said she ordered a gradual admission of patients since only the first phase of the facility has been completed.

"Hindi pa rin tapos ang kabuuan ng facility, only phase 1 ang tapos... Walang koneksyon ng tubig ang ibang phases ng facility," Ubial said in an interview with radio DZMM.

"Sabi ko, dahan-dahanin rin natin ang pagpasok ng mga pasyente kasi hindi pa nga tapos."

(The whole facility is not yet complete, only phase 1 has been finished. There is no water connection yet to some of the other phases. I said the admission of the patients should be gradual.)

The construction of the facility, which is tucked away in the sprawling military reservation of Fort Magsaysay in Laur town, may be finished around May or April, she said.

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Ubial said admitting drug dependents to the treatment center will not be easy as this should first be authorized by a court order to ensure that patients have no criminal liabilities.

Potential patients could come from other rehabilitation facilities or from among the hundreds of thousands of drug suspects who have surrendered to authorities.

Ubial said only 1 percent of those patients need residential rehabilitation while the rest only require outpatient or community-based rehabilitation.

The government's anti-drug campaign has been criticized by human rights groups and international bodies due to the death of some 7,000 drug suspects, of whom 2,500 were slain in police efforts.

Duterte has dismissed these comments, saying the administration did not sanction extrajudicial killing and that the government is doing what it can to rehabilitate drug offenders who surrender.

The administration partnered with philanthropists to put up the mega treatment center in Nueva Ecija and draw plans for similar facilities in Visayas and Mindanao.