BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Ten of the 1,100 City hall employees of Victorias City, Negros Occidental tested positive for illegal drug use, following an unannounced drug testing on August 30 at the Don Alejandro Acuña Yap Quiña Arts and Cultural Center in Victorias City.
Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez yesterday said those who tested positive for illegal drugs are job order workers. Their contracts, which will end this September, will no longer be renewed.
Nine tested positive for shabu, while one tested positive for marijuana use, he added.
Benitez said the city government will help them in their rehabilitation, if they want it.
The City Health Office, assisted by the local police, administered the unannounced drug testing on City Hall officials and employees, whether permanent, casual, contractual or job order workers, immediately after the traditional flag raising ceremony on Monday.
This was also after barangays X and XI of Victorias City were also declared as drug cleared by the Regional Oversight Committee 6, which composed of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philippine National Police, Departments of Health and the Interior and Local Government.
In a statement, Benitez, who led government employees in availing of drug tests, emphasized that his administration is pushing clean governance and that includes having drug-free public servants.
In the imposition of strict drug-testing at the City Hall, Benitez said nobody is exempted.
This is pursuant to the mandates of the 1987 Constitution and the Administrative Code of 1987 to ensure that morale, efficiency, integrity, responsiveness, progressiveness, and courtesy shall be widely observed in the civil service and to ensure that government service shall be drug-free as provided by the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, a statement from its Public Information Office said.*
