59 Quezon gov’t employees fail drug test, lose jobs

LUCENA CITY—The war on illegal drugs has moved closer to the Quezon provincial government’s doorsteps as 59 employees were sacked after tests confirmed that they used banned substances.

Gov. David Suarez said the dismissal of these employees was in line with the campaign to make all government workers and offices in the province drug-free.

Suarez, in an interview on Tuesday, said the provincial government’s policy of subjecting employees to drug tests has continued in support of the intensified government campaign against illegal drugs and criminality.

Last month, Suarez created the Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Padac) to address the drug problem in the province.

“The increasing use of illegal drugs has considerably contributed to the incidence of various crimes, thus, this problem has to be addressed much more effectively to help ensure community peace and harmony,” Suarez said, through Executive Order No. 21 that created Padac.

A source in the provincial government said the policy on drug tests for Quezon employees was implemented early this year.

A provincial official, who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak to reporters, said most of the dismissed workers were casual and job order employees. The provincial government has at least 1,000 regular and contractual employees, the source said.

“After they tested positive [for drug use] during the initial test, they were required to undergo a confirmatory test which validated the first results,” said the source.

Supt. Antonio Yarra, Quezon provincial police director, said confessed drug pushers and big-time traffickers who surrendered to the police recently have become sources of information on the extent of the drug trade in the province.

“All information [they gave], after careful validation, were valuable to all law enforcers. These are now helping us unmask the syndicate’s networks of pushers and distributors,” Yarra said.

He advised drug traders who have yet to surrender to seek the police and start a new life.

“Sooner, their identities will be known to us. They cannot hide or run once we start hunting them. They better stop and surrender or be arrested,” he said.

From July 31 to Aug. 14, at least 12,000 confessed drug pushers and users in Quezon had surrendered to authorities. At least 159 others were arrested, some of them key players in the local drug trade, records from the Quezon police showed.

Yarra said the police are working on the arrest of 50 suspected big-time drug traffickers in Quezon province.

“It’s either they surrender, be arrested or be killed if they resist arrest and fight law enforcers,” he said.