ILOILO CITY — Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Western Visayas made a surprise inspection of the seven floors of the Iloilo City hall Thursday morning.
Acting Mayor Jose Espinosa III said that the inspection was the second part of the drug-free workplace policy that is being observed at the city hall. He said that the planning almost took them a week and only three to five persons were privy of the details.
The first part was the establishment of a drop box at the ground floor to encourage employees to report suspected drug personalities working at the city government.
Three K-9 teams were deployed to scan various offices at the city hall.
“This is the first time in the whole Philippines that a city hall was checked by K-9 so we know that we are a drug-free workplace,” he said.
The initiative is to ensure that there are no employees engaging in illegal drugs. It is also their way of “leading by example” as he challenged barangay officials to also do their own initiative, he said.
“I am not saying that I am doubting (city hall employees) but we just would like to show that we lead by example for other agencies to follow to help in the campaign of our President (Rodrigo Duterte),” he added.
Espinosa said there is going to be a third part in their campaign to make the city hall a drug-free workplace but he did not disclose to maintain the “element of surprise.”
Meantime, retired colonel Felix Muchada who is the chief security officer and administrator of the drop box at the city hall, said that four names were reported and already validated by the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Three of them were found to be users and one was engaged in selling illegal drugs. Their names were also in the list of the PNP.
Muchada said the “full force of the law” have to be applied to them. (PNA)
