Employees of Mandaue City’s City Legal Office, City Treasurer’s Office, City Assessor’s Office and Housing and Urban Development Office undergo a surprise drug test at city hall.
NORMAN MENDOZA
MANDAUE CITY
Twenty-three government employees, mostly job order workers, have been found positive of illegal drug use in two separate surprise drug tests conducted in five Mandaue City government offices in the last couple of days.
Yesterday, eight JO employees of the City Legal Office, City Treasurer’s Office, City Assessor’s Office and Housing and Urban Development Office (HUDO) failed the surprise drug tests conducted at City Hall.
Fifteen were earlier found positive of using illegal drugs in last week’s surprise drug tests conducted on employees of the city’s General Services Office (GSO).
Lawyer Danilo Almendras, Mandaue City administrator, said that the continuing surprise drug tests on the city’s government employees is part of the city government’s cleansing of its employees to be free from illegal drugs.
Almendras said that employees found positive would be given a chance to justify the results or they would automatically be terminated from the job.
However, only 280 out of 308 employees of the four offices were present during yesterday’s surprise tests.
The 28 employees who were absent during the tests would still be required to undergo the drug test.
Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel Luis “Luigi” Quisumbing set the example for all city government employees to be free of drugs and to undergo the drug tests, which he underwent last year conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).
The city councilors and their staff members and department heads underwent the surprise drug tests last year, and they were found negative of illegal drug use.
As for the tests of the rest of the city government employees, the Health Department took over from PDEA-7 because the agency did not have the funds to conduct the tests on all Mandaue City government employees.
Almendras said that the surprise drug test would continue until all government employees have undergone the tests.
He said that Quisumbing’s administration is aiming to serve the public without any links to illegal activities and to workers not dedicated or honest in doing their jobs.