A police officer who tested positive for illegal drug use has filed a complaint against his superiors for allegedly not following the proper procedures in conducting the drug test.
Assisted by his lawyer, Police Officer 1 Merlo Laborte asked the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to stop any investigation conducted against him.
Impleaded in the cases were Senior Insp. Dindo Juanito Alaras, chief of the Recruitment and Selection Section of the Regional Personnel and Human Resource Development Division (RPHRDD), the Cebu City Internal Affairs Service, and the Regional Crime Laboratory.
Judge James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan of the RTC Branch 7 in Cebu City has set a hearing on October 6, Friday, to determine whether or not the court will issue a temporary restraining order in favor of Laborte and stop the investigation.
Lawyer Christopher Ruiz, legal counsel of Laborte, said the petitioner has already been condemned to suffer the stigma of going through summary hearing proceedings for grave misconduct even before he could be afforded the right to challenge the results of the drug test.
“The circumstances surrounding the conduct of the drug test, including the filing of the complaint against the issuance of a notice of complaint against herein petitioner show how respondents acted arbitrarily, capriciously, and whimsically in arriving at the charge vs petitioner,” he said in the complaint.
Alaras begged off from issuing a statement, saying he has yet to go over the case filed by Laborte.
“I am on schooling right now. I do not have the full details of the complaint,” he said in a text message to Cebu Daily News.
In May 2017, Laborte applied for promotion to the rank of police officer 2.
Laborte and 118 other applicants for promotion underwent drug testing on July 27, 2017 as mandated by the RPHRDD.
Two days later or on July 29, the Regional Crime Laboratory issued a report, saying Laborte was positive for illegal drug use.
Ruiz said it was only on August 9 that the petitioner was informed about the outcome of the drug test.
Laborte then informed Alaras about his desire to challenge the result of the drug test and requested the same urine specimen to be brought to a diagnostic center in Cebu for confirmatory test.
The petitioner went to a diagnostic center in uptown Cebu City but was told that confirmatory tests can only be done at another laboratory in Manila.
Ruiz said Laborte expressed his desire to undergo confirmatory test in Manila but the Regional Crime Laboratory medical technologist allegedly tried to dissuade the petitioner, saying it was an exercise in futility.
The same medical technologist allegedly suggested that Laborte instead prepare for his defense.
Two days later, Ruiz said the Cebu City Internal Affairs Office issued a notice to Laborte, informing him that he was being investigated after testing positive for illegal drug use.
Ruiz, however, cited some violations in the conduct of the drug test, saying it was done without the presence of a police personnel more senior than him, and that there was no scrap paper prepared to identify the urine sample of Laborte.
“The guidelines for the conduct of a drug test upon officers of the Philippine National Police was crafted not only for the orderly handling of drug tests by responsible officers but, most importantly, to ensure the due observance of the PNP members’ constitutionally-sheltered right to due process of law,” he said.
“Lamentably, however, the mandatory procedures were never faithfully followed in the case of the herein petitioner as he was never given the chance to appropriately and effectively mount a challenge to the drug test,” he added.
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