LAWMAKERS on Monday backed proposals that they undergo mandatory testing in the wake of President Rodrigo Duterte’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.
At a news conference, Deputy Speakers and Reps. Eric Singson of Ilocos Sur, Mercedes Alvarez of Negros Occidental, Fred Castro of Capiz and Miro Quimbo of Marikina City said they all favor the drug tests.
They said they would also take the issue up with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who had earlier expressed his full backing for any move to have members of the House undergo drug testing.
“I am open to be drug tested. It used to be a qualification in filing a certificate of candidacy,”Alvarez said. “We will discuss it with the House leadership, if members of Congress are open to it,” she added. But Alvarez said having lawmakers submit to a drug test, in the absence of a law requiring it, would have to be a matter of personal choice.
Singson said he would take up the matter with Alvarez “to show Congress is also cooperating in the fight against illegal drugs.”
Quimbo said there is nothing wrong with lawmakers being required to undergo drug tests.
“It should not be encouraged but should be required,” Quimbo said, adding that “members of Congress should not be too onion-skinned.”
In fact, he said, Congress as an institution should take the lead in the campaign against illegal drugs.
Last week, President Duterte named several public officials involved in the illegal drug trade, including several former and incumbent lawmakers.
In Pampanga, Mabalacat City Mayor Mariano Morales presented himself to the police after he was included in Duterte’s list.
Regional director Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, however, told Morales to proceed to Camp Crame to clear his name.
“I have no order to hold you as of now, Aquino told Morales.