PAGADIAN CITY—Mayor Romeo Pulmones led more than 700 officials and employees in this capital city taking a month-long mandatory drug test in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s nationwide intensified campaign against illegal drugs.
The local drug test was the first among local government unit employees in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9)
Pulmones said the test was supervised by the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and conducted by the City Health Office and at the City Hall Complex.
City administrator Lauro Mendoza said the test “seeks to promote transparency, integrity and competence in the work place.”
Among those tested are casual workers such as street sweepers and market cleaners for the renewal of their appointment, said Mendoza.
Casual employee Allan Paul Morandan commended Pulmones for taking the drug test in front of employees.
Female city interior and local government worker Arlene Antipolo said she strongly favors the conduct of drug exam, saying that some drug pushers and users now belong to the weaker sex even as she stressed that the activity would strongly discourage unscrupulous employees from selling prohibited drugs.
Antipolo called for the suspension of employees who tested positive for drugs “as they constitute a menace to the local government.”