Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said the mayors can impose their own penalties on employees who test positive for drugs.
“Here in the province, if you’re positive, then you have to leave the service,” the governor told reporters in a press conference yesterday.
Davide said this after a surprise drug test in two towns on Camotes island showed 10 employees testing positive for drug use.
Last Monday, eight out of 63 employees of San Francisco town tested positive. Of the eight, three admitted to drug use.
In a separate drug test on the same day in Poro, four out of 45 employees tested positive. Two of those four employees admitted to drug use.
All police officers in the towns of San Francisco, Poro, and Tudela tested negative for drug use last Monday.
The drug tests in the local government units were done by the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Commission (CPADAC) while the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory conducted the tests for police personnel.
“There will still be disciplinary action but I still hope to have a word with those that tested positive,” San Francisco Mayor Aly Arquillano said.
The mayor said he will still have to study what kind of penalty will be imposed on the employees. Arquillano is presently in Manila for a post-Yolanda meeting. He said there won’t be any consideration for those who admitted to drug use.
“Whether they admitted or not, for as long as they tested positive, they will still be punished,” he said. A surprise drug test done in Pilar last Tuesday showed that 67 town employees tested negative.
About 40 of them were casual and permanent employees while 20 were job order workers.