3 Waterfront police tests positive for ‘shabu’ use; risk dismissal from service

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas. | CDND File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Three policemen assigned at the Waterfront Police Station in Cebu City may face dismissal from service after they tested positive for illegal drugs use.

Brigadier General Debold Sinas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said that he already gave instructions for Colonel Gemma Vinluan, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), last night, August 5, to recall the firearms, badges, and IDs of the three police officers.

Sinas said he ordered the drug testing on 61 policemen assigned at the Waterfront Police Station on July 26 and 27 after he received information that “someone from the (police) station is using illegal drugs.”

Drug test results was already subjected to confirmatory testing by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7), he said.

The PRO-7 director announced the names of the three policemen holding the ranks of Police Corporal in an interview with reporters this morning, August 6, but CDN Digital opted to withhold their names pending release of their respective statements.

Sinas said that the three Police Corporals were immediately transferred to the CCPO headquarters after the release of the PDEA confirmatory test results.  They will soon be reassigned Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU) that could lead to their eventual dismissal from service.

“I would like to remind (everyone) that the penalty, the minimum penalty, for a police officer nga magpositive sa drugs is dismissal. No negotiations on that,” he said.

Sinas said that he also gave instructions for Vinluan to initiate more drug testings to make sure that policemen in the city are drug-free. /dcb