Metro Manila mayors willing to take drug testing

Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri, chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council in Metro Manila INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The 13 mayors of Metro Manila are willing to undergo drug testing to erase doubts of drug use among local chief executives.

Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri, chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council in Metro Manila, gave Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas and Undersecretary for Local Government Austere Panadero this assurance to dramatize the mayor’s support for the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Echiverri, in a press statement, said the metro mayors have seriously taken up the problem of drug abuse,  particularly among local officials.

In a Sept. 26 meeting at the Hotel Rembrant in Quezon City, the regional peace and order council passed a resolution in support of a drug-free city government.

“Drugs don’t work within the workforce,” Echiverri said. He added that candidates in the 2013 mid-term elections must submit themselves for drug testing despite the ruling of the Commission on Elections that it is no longer required.

He said the council stressed the importance of drug testing and the need for the participation of the candidates.

“The 2013 candidates who believe in the antidrug drive must follow not only the law but also the dictates of their conscience,” he added.

“We have to elect mayors, vice mayors and other local officials who are not drug addicts,”  he said.

Other local government officials present during the meeting were Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista; Pateros Mayor Jaime Medina; Pasig Mayor Robert Eusebio; Taguig Mayor Laarni Cayetano; Marikina Mayor del De Guzman; Malabon Mayor Len Oreta; and Pasay City Mayor Antonio Calixto.  Manila, Las Piñas, Parañaque, San Pedro and Mandaluyong City sent their representatives.