FOURTEEN government employees of the Cebu Provincial government failed the surprise drug test conducted by the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) this month.
Carmen Remedios Durano-Meca, CPADAO head, said that 14 government workers out of the 908 workers who took the drug test this month failed.
Meca said that the surprise and random drug testing was conducted on government employees of San Fernando, Barili, Naga City, Argao District Hospital and the Provincial Intelligence Branch this month.
Last May 3, around 338 employees of the local government unit (LGU) in San Fernando, while four JO employees turned out positive, Meca said.
While, at least 91 hospital staff from the Isidro C. Kintanar Memorial Hospital in Argao town were also tested on May 15, where two employees, a regular employee and a job order employee, turned out positive of drug use, she said.
Meca said sometime this month at least 390 employees of Barili town, including the personnel of the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Fire Protection of the town underwent a surprise and random drug test.
In the Barili town employees drug testing, seven failed the test.
On May 22, 66 government employees from Naga City underwent the drug test where a job order employee was found positive of drug use.
As for the personnel from the Philippine Intelligence Branch, they underwent the surprise drug test on May 10 and all personnel were found negative of drug use.
Meca said, in a previous interview, that the confirmatory test result would be submitted to local chief executives, and their respective discipline committees would impose sanctions on employees found positive of drug use.
Meanwhile, Meca lauded the effort of the local government in Naga City for having surprise drug testing on their whole year schedule.
“They are the only LGU with a very good practice in terms of implementation of a drug-free workplace,” she said.