ALIAGA, Nueva Ecija — At least 400 aspirants for various positions in the forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) in this agricultural municipality submitted themselves for a voluntary drug testing Wednesday.
Initiated by a group called Samahan ng Bayanihan ng Mamamayan, the whole day drug testing activity earned support from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and other agencies, said San Juan barangay chairman Erwin Javaluyas.
Javaluyas, who is also the president of the town’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said the drug testing on BSKE aspirants is in support of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“We believe in President Rodrigo Duterte that the barangays should be cleaned from illegal drugs,” he said adding that aspirants for BSKE have moral obligation to help in fighting the menace.
The testing was funded by the group itself, he said.
Javaluyas said drug testing is not a pre-requisite for filing a certificate of candidacy (COC) before the Commission on Elections.
But, he said they are ready to help anyone who would be confirmed to be drug user to rehabilitate and advise him or her to “forego his or her dream of being barangay official for now.”
No one in the group was found positive of drug use. (Marilyn Galang/PNA)
