THE Quezon City government on Wednesday called on all barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan candidates in the May 14 elections to undergo drug tests.
The 37-member city council urged candidates to subject themselves to drug testing as they go out to campaign.
It passed City Resolution 7440 to encourage all candidates in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataang elections to take the initiative to undergo voluntary drug testing.
“In support of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s thrust against illegal drugs, it is imperative that those who have the desire to be barangay officials must be drug free,” the resolution read.
Under the resolution, candidates are also encouraged to include the illegal drug campaign of the city as an integral part of their campaign platform.
Over 200 barangay and SK candidates from District 2’s barangays Holy Spirit, Batasan Hills, Commonwealth, Bagong Silangan and Payatas have taken an integrity pledge for a free, orderly, violence-free and fair election during a peace covenant signing organized by the Commission on Elections at the city hall.
Quezon City Police District Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel said the police will perform its duty to enforce the law and take the necessary action to ensure public safety during the elections.
At the QCPD’s Station 7 in Cubao, 113 accepted the drug test challenge of Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde.
The candidates who willingly accepted the challenge came from barangays Bagong Lipunan, E. Rodriguez, Horse Shoe, Kaunlaran, San Martin de Porres, San Roque, Silangan, Socorro and Valencia.
Meanwhile, the city government has launched a book on the compilation of 50 speeches of Mayor Herbert Bautista in time for his 50th birthday on May 12.
Its City Public Library released the book entitled “Lessons and Legacies,” after the Feb. 5 release of the “QC Milestones: A Timeline of Events that shaped a Great City.”
The book classified Bautista’s speeches into six subject areas — Making Local Governance and Leadership Work, Pursuing Social and Community Development, Maintaining Public Order and Safety, Promoting Business and Entrepreneurship, Advocating for the Environment and Disaster Management, and the Mayor’s State of the City Addresses from 2010 to 2017.
“We feel the necessity of compiling his speeches done as the Father of the City because we recognize that his words were not just mere statements of his vision and mission as a mayor but also policies that have created positive impact on his constituents. Mayor Bautista built his speeches guided by the notion that words are only meaningful when they are translated into action,” city librarian Emelita Villanueva said.
The late Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista, a national artist for literature and city’s outstanding citizen awardee in 1996, wrote the book’s foreword in which he connected his experience as a resident of the city to Quezon City’s growth as a “global city.”
“While it would be worthy to include those that come before his term as mayor of QC, here is a compendium of a young leader’s thoughts, principles and beliefs that have guided the city,” the foreword read.
Bautista commended the city public library for continuing its mission as the first public library in the Philippines to venture into publishing.
“I thank the city public library for the effort in compiling 50 of my speeches since I became the mayor,” he said.