MANILA, Philippines?College and university faculty members will undergo random drug testing starting next month to help eradicate the problem of illegal drugs in schools, Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Emmanuel Angeles said Monday.
Angeles said faculty members who fail the random drug testing that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered earlier this month would not be allowed to teach unless they undergo a drug rehabilitation program.
?We are going to include not only students but also members of the faculty in the random drug testing which we hope to implement starting next month,? Angeles said at a press conference in the CHEd main office in Diliman, Quezon City.
Ms Arroyo, who recently took over the position of the anti-drug czar, ordered the random drug testing for students. She issued the order following the controversy over the arrest of the so-called ?Alabang Boys,? scions of rich families accused of drug peddling.
Last week, Vicente Sotto III, chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), said that students of some 8,500 public and private high schools, colleges, universities and vocational schools would be ordered to undergo the drug tests.
Sotto said the program was an expansion of the DDB?s existing drug testing program, which has been implemented in the last two years at randomly selected schools nationwide.
Go on rehab
Angeles said faculty members found using prohibited substances would have to undergo rehabilitation or they might be dismissed from their posts.
?Faculty members found positive for substance abuse will not be allowed to teach. They will be made to undergo rehabilitation,? Angeles said.
He said the CHEd was already in the final stages of its preparation for the testing, which has been allocated P6 million.
?We hope to implement the drug testing not later than February. We are going to do it very soon,? Angeles said.
He said the CHEd was closely coordinating with the Department of Health and other government agencies to ensure that the random drug testing succeeds.
He added that the CHEd ?strongly encouraged? parents of students who test positive for illegal drug use to have their children undergo counseling and rehabilitation.
?We have to implement the law and, if the law says they have to undergo rehabilitation, then we will bring them to the rehabilitation centers,? Angeles said.
15 students per school
But with CHEd?s tight budget for the project, only 15 students per school might be randomly tested at the tertiary level considering that the country has 1,726 higher institutions of learning, said Katherine Castańeda, CHEd director for student affairs.
There are 110 state universities and colleges, while 77 universities and colleges are operated by local government units.
The country has about 2.5 million college students.
The planned drug testing among schoolchildren could lead to their dropping out of schools, according to the head of the Department of Education (DepEd) office in Eastern Visayas.
?While I am for it, I still have my own apprehensions. This may frighten our schoolchildren and may lead to trauma. Eventually, this will result for them to leave school causing our dropout rate (to increase),? DepEd-8 director Sol Matugas said on Monday.
She said the program might have good intentions but taking urine samples from schoolchildren would have adverse impact on them.
?I am just trying to take the other side of the anti-drug test program,? Matugas said.
She said the regional office had not been ?remiss? in helping solve the drug menace in the country. ?We have a manual on the National Drug Education Program, which is incorporated in subjects like Sibika and Health,? Matugas said.
While she admitted hearing reports of schoolchildren hooked on drugs, Matugas said: ?I have yet to see or know a student caught red-handed with shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) or other illegal drugs.?
Gil Pabilona, regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said drug testing was part of the government?s preventive measures to determine whether students were into using illegal drugs.
?This is being done within the concept of suspicion and not to punish them,? Pabilona said.
Big drug lords
At rites marking the 18th anniversary of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame on Monday, Ms Arroyo reiterated that the government?s renewed campaign against illegal drugs was intended to crack down on the operations of big drug lords.
To do this, she ordered the PNP to improve collaboration with the PDEA in intensifying intelligence work and case buildup against drug suspects.
?Let us wage a fiercer war against them on the fronts of law enforcement, judicial action, and policy-making,? she said.
?I enjoin you to cooperate with the PDEA, with the local government units, and other agencies as we crack down on the big drug lords.?
Ms Arroyo directed authorities to tighten intelligence network throughout the country and work to eliminate the number of drug cases dismissed due to mere technicalities.
?Let us make sure that by building up a good case, they will go straight to conviction,? she said. With reports from Christian V. Esguerra and Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas
