• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
About 40 regular and job order employees of the San Carlos City government underwent random drug testing on July 17, after 13 employees of the Silay City government in Negros Occidental tested positive for the use of illegal drugs.
Ana Liza Macaraya, secretariat of the San Carlos Anti- Drug Abuse Council, disclosed that job order employees who test positive will be discharged immediately from work.
Macaraya, however, said they still have an option to submit themselves to a community-based drug rehabilitation program (CBDRP) of the local government, in order to have the chance to return to work.
She added that regular employees that test positive are subject to 6-month counseling, or confinement to a rehabilitation center and disciplinary action, depending on the result of the Drug Dependency Examination (DDE), under the guidelines of the Civil Service Commission.
Mayor Renato Gustilo disclosed on Tuesday said that they cannot yet announce which employees tested positive, adding that it will still have to be submitted to Metro Manila for confirmatory tests, should somebody test positive for illegal drug use.
Gustilo however noted that there were several instances where some employees tested positive during local random drug tests but turned out negative when their results were subjected to confirmatory tests in Manila.
The city government of San Carlos has about 900 regular employees, and 700 job order and casual personnel.
On the other hand, the 13 Silay City government employees who tested positive for the use of illegal drugs have lost their jobs. Eleven job order personnel were dismissed, while two others volunteered to resign.*
