Rep. Duterte files bill requiring mandatory drug test for elected, appointed officials
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/November 19)—A day after Senator Imee Marcos detailed the alleged drug use of her brother at the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) rally, Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte filed a bill Tuesday seeking mandatory drug testing, through hair follicle test, for elected and appointed officials of the government.
Sen. Imee Marcos accused her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and other members of the First Family of using illegal drugs during the INC rally at the Quirino Grandstand on Monday, November 17.
The proposed legislation seeks to amend provisions of Republic Act (R.A.) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, to include hair follicle drug test as a mode of drug testing.
A hair follicle drug test is a method of screening for drug use by analyzing a small sample of hair, usually cut from the scalp. It is said to be more reliable than other methods because when a person uses drugs, the substances and their byproducts are absorbed into the bloodstream. Since each hair follicle has a blood vessel, these compounds get incorporated into the growing hair shaft and become trapped within the hair strand. The standard test analyzes the hair shaft above the scalp, not the follicle itself.
Section 36 of the proposed amendment provides that the “authorized drug testing shall be done by any government forensic laboratories or by any of the drug testing laboratories accredited and monitored by the Department of Health to safeguard the quality of test results.”
It added that the hair follicle analysis will be used as the initial screening and, and if the test yields a positive result, identify the type of drug used. A confirmatory test would then be conducted through a urine drug test.
The two-page bill stated that elected and appointed officials of the government, government instrumentalities, or government-owned and controlled corporations, whether domestic or overseas, shall be subject to a random drug test.
It also provides administrative sanctions, such as suspension or termination from office, for those who test positive for the use of dangerous drugs once it is passed into law.
In his explanatory note, Duterte pointed out that the hair follicle test is effective in detecting “unreported recent use of cocaine and/or oxycodone, and it often adds to the detection power of urine, making it ideal as a screening test coupled with the urine test in confirmatory stages of drug testing.”
He added that the country is still “muddled with a remarkable number of drug use and abuse cases, particularly P87.9 billion worth of dangerous drugs seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency from 2022 until the first quarter of 2025.”
Under the current provisions of R.A. 9165, he noted that drug testing is already mandatory for government officials, but Duterte added that the Dangerous Drugs Board issued Regulation No. 13 in 2018, exempting “elective officials and presidential appointees from mandatory drug testing.”
He maintained that elected and appointed officials should not be exempted from mandatory drug testing “since it becomes imperative upon their own mandate that they shall lead the life of modesty and integrity.”
“Being at the forefront of public service with the mandate towards integrity and modesty, public officials and employees shall be the very first to uphold such Constitutional mandate by submitting to accountability measures which serve as a tool in addressing the fulfillment of the mandate,” he noted.
However, Duterte has himself been accused of having links to illegal drugs. Along with his brother-in-law Manases Carpio, who is married to Vice President Sara Duterte, the eldest son of the former president faced allegations in 2017 that he helped facilitate a crystal methamphetamine shipment worth $125.4 million into the country from China.
Duterte and Carpio both denied the allegations. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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