Axed Mandaluyong police chief’s ‘negative’ drug test junked

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police will not recognize the belated negative drug test results of sacked Mandaluyong police chief Col. Cesar Gerente, who earlier tested positive for illegal drugs.

Brig. Gen. Constancio Chinayog Jr., PNP-Forensic Group director, said the PNP would not recognize the negative drug test results.

Gerente insisted he was neither a drug addict nor a drug user even after he tested positive for drugs during the screening test conducted on Aug. 24. A second drug test on Aug. 26 confirmed his urine sample was positive for shabu or crystal meth.

In an interview with GMA News on Thursday night, Gerente showed that he tested negative in subsequent drug tests by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and an accredited testing center on Aug. 29, and by the National Bureau of Investigation on Sept. 6.

Gerente suspected that being exposed to drug evidence and his intake of maintenance medicines might have made him positive. But the PNP-FG stood by the “reliability” and “accuracy” of the confirmatory drug tests.

They rejected the negative results since the urine samples used were different from the one originally submitted by Gerente on Aug. 24.

“He can present whatever he has, but for the Forensic Group, we stick to our findings,” Chinayog said.

—DEXTER CABALZA