ALARMED by the reported narco list of barangay officials involved in drugs, the Quezon City government has passed a resolution urging local candidates for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to go through a drug test.
Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, presiding officer of the 37-member city council, said the measure would bolster the city government’s efforts to ensure that elected officials or candidates aspiring for positions in the barangay remain drug-free.
“Barangay officials involved in drugs is one serious issue for President [Rodrigo] Duterte. He is mad at this,” she added.
The council members approved overwhelmingly the measure seeking to encourage all candidates for the May 14 elections in Quezon City to take the initiative to undergo drug testing.
According to Belmonte, she felt sorry that the Commission on Elections did not include the mandatory drug test as one of the requirements for barangay and SK candidates in the upcoming polls.
“It’s a lost opportunity. This should have been a good way to ensure that the candidates we will vote for are not into drugs,” she said.
To subject themselves to drug test would show the honesty and sincerity of the candidates, she added.
City Ordinance No. 2460, or The Implementation of a Drug-Free Workplace Program, that requires all 14,000 City Hall officials and employees, including elected barangay and SK candidates, states it is the government’s policy “to safeguard the integrity of its territory and the well-being of its citizenry from the ill-effects of dangerous drugs.”
“In support of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s thrust against illegal drugs and criminality, it is imperative that those who have desire to be barangay officials must be drug-free,” it read.