Press Release
February 11, 2009

ANGARA MULLS REGULAR DRUG TEST FOR LAW ENFORCERS

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today suggested that law enforcers should be regularly subjected to random drug tests to ensure that our law enforcers are discouraged from using illegal drugs, which would surely jeopardize our country's drive against illegal drugs.

"This is a matter of national security and societal integrity. If we cannot assure that our law enforcers are not using illegal drugs, this would surely jeopardize our national anti-drug campaign including all the resources and efforts put into it. The high-ranking officers of our law enforcement agencies should take the cudgels in order to instill discipline and ensure integrity among their ranks," said Angara who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance.

He added, "Our law enforcers should take the lead in cleaning up the offenders among their ranks. It is really dangerous that those who are tasked the lead in our campaign are the number one people who are addicted."

Recently, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that 221 of the 25,134 police officers who have undergone drug tests in 2008 were found positive for illegal drugs.

The organization have also assured that corresponding sanctions were metted against these 221 police officer found positive for drug use. Of this number,

  • 80 have been dismissed from the organization;

  • 24 were metted with suspensions;

  • 10 demoted and have resigned;

  • two (2) have been dropped from the police's rolls;

  • 105 policemen are also facing cases, of this number 26 are under pre-charge evaluation and 79 are under summary dismissal proceedings.

For this year, PNP is targeting to conduct more drug tests on 30,000 of its member which corresponds to 25 percent of 125,000-strong organization.

"A united front against illegal drugs is needed to ensure the success of our campaign. Although, I believe that one of the primary considerations is the integrity of our law enforcement agencies," he added.

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