111 barangay employees test positive for drug use

MORE barangay employees in Cebu City have tested positive for illegal drug use, although confirmatory tests still have to be conducted.

As of May 10, the number has reached 111, according to the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap).

So far, 1,890 employees were subjected to drug tests in 58 of the city’s 80 barangays this year. Cosap head Dr. Alice Utlang considers the number of employees found positive as alarming.

“It is alarming because these are employees of the barangay. In a government office, no one should be found positive because the salaries they’re getting are from the people’s taxes,” Utlang said.

Of the 58 barangays where Cosap conducted drug tests, only Barangay Banilad was declared by Cosap as a “drug-free workplace.”

Cosap records show that most of the employees found positive of drug use were garbage loaders and barangay tanods.

Of the 111 barangay employees, 71 were garbage loaders while 23 were barangay tanods.

Twelve drivers, two street cleaners, one traffic aide, one maintenance staff and one electrician also tested positive for drug use.

“The reason why Mayor Tommy Osmeña, gistrikto ug gi-evaluate ang mga tanod ug loaders. Naay rason di kay pasanginlan pamulitika (strictly evaluated the tanods and loaders. There is a reason and it’s not just for politicking).

For Tomorrow Must Be Better Than Today (sic),” said Utlang in a post on her Facebook account together with photos of the data from her office.

Unfair

But Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) President Philip Zafra says Utlang’s describing the numbers as alarming is “unfair and uncalled for.”

“Gamay ra kaayo. (That’s a very small number.) For me, that statement is unfair and uncalled for. You should not stir the public. You’re talking here about 2,000 employees and yet there are only 100. All strata of the society has been affected by this problem,” Zafra told Cebu Daily News when sought for comment on the data.

He said that the number of employees who tested positive is not even 10 percent of the total number of employees who were tested by Cosap.

What can be considered alarming is if the number represented 30 to 40 percent of the total number of employees tested, he added.

He gave an assurance that barangay officials are also doing their best to do internal cleansing of their ranks in order to stop the further spread of illegal drug use.

“Our advice to the barangay captains who have employees found positive of illegal drug use is that they should be told to stop working and voluntarily submit themselves to intervention programs or rehabilitation,” he said.

Comparison

But Utlang said if only one percent of the employees were found positive for drug use, that would not be alarming.

Utlang said data in 2014 would show that 191 employees tested positive for drugs, out of 4,689 employees from 61 barangays.

“Compared to 2014, this year, there are already a lot of employees found positive even if gamay pa ang na-test (we have only tested a few),” she said.

Confirmatory tests will, however, need to be conducted. But if the confirmatory tests jibe with the initial test, then these barangay workers will be automatically terminated.

She said though that these employees may still have a chance to work for the barangay again if they undergo rehabilitation and will be able to present a certificate of completion.

“The barangays don’t have the ascendancy to reprimand their residents if there are workers in the barangay that are drug users,” Utlang said.