MANILA — In response to President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s call for a drug-free work environment, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Officer-in-Charge Prospero de Vera III and other top officials of the commission, underwent a mandatory drug testing on Monday.
“This initiative is being undertaken consistent with Civil Service Commission memorandum circular number 13 series of 2017, which provides the guidelines in the mandatory drug test for public officials and other purposes,” de Vera said in a press briefing.
De Vera said the measure is intended to identify drug dependent employees so they may be given appropriate health and psychological assistance.
“This is not meant to penalize government workers. We want to make sure that all individuals in the commission are performing their functions well and that there are no obstacles to the delivery of efficient public service,” he said.
De Vera added that CHED will donate 100 million pesos for the study and creation of a new drug testing kit, which can identify whether specimen samples are positive with drugs that are not covered by the current kit.
“Our kit now can test limited drugs only. It cannot test the designer drugs now,” he said in Filipino.
The new kit is expected to be released after two years. Researchers from University of the Philippines-Manila and the University of California in San Francisco will lead its study and creation.
“Once this research is completed, we will capacitate all the drug-testing facilities to be able to use this kit,” he said.
De Vera clarified that while the commission encourages all colleges and universities to have a drug-free environment for their students’ welfare, he said the commission will not conduct any drug test in higher education institutions.
“How they do that, we leave it up to them (colleges and universities),” he said.
In 2016, Duterte ordered all government agencies to support the anti-illegal drugs campaign. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
