THE Quezon City Sangguniang Panlungsod wants the candidates for the city’s 142 barangays and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) to undergo drug tests to ensure that no drug users would become government officials in the city.
The stand of the Sangguniang Panglunsod headed by Vice Mayor Josefina G. Belmonte was a result of Resolution 20CC-920 that it approved and passed on April 23.
Belmonte, also the city council’s presiding officer, said the resolution will surely bolster the city government’s efforts to ensure that elected officials or candidates aspiring for positions in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan are not drug dependents.
“Barangay officials involved in drugs is one serious issue for President Duterte,” Belmonte said in English and Filipino.
Resolution 20CC-920 seeks to “encourage all candidates for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Quezon City to take the initiative to undergo drug testing.”
Belmonte, also the head of the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Advisory Council, admitted she regretted that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) did not include the mandatory drug testing as one of the requirements for barangay and SK candidates.
“It was unfortunate; it did not proceed [referring to the proposal to the Comelec that all barangay and SK candidates be tested for drug use],” she said. “This should have been a good way to ensure the candidates we will vote for are not into drugs.”
Subjecting the candidates to drug testing would also show the honesty and sincerity of the candidates, Belmonte added.
The resolution asserted it should be the policy of the city government “to safeguard the integrity of its territory and the well-being of its citizenry from the ill effects of dangerous drugs.”
“In support of President Duterte’s thrust against illegal drugs and criminality, it is imperative that those desire to be barangay officials must be drug-free,” the resolution stated.
The resolution also cited the drug list provided by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that contained the names of 289 incumbent barangay officials (143 chairmen and 146 councilors) involved in drug trafficking as additional basis to convince the candidates to undergo a drug test. The PDEA list was reportedly submitted to Duterte.
Belmonte recalled back that, in 2016, there were 303 barangay officials, including two barangay councilors, and staff members who tested positive for drug use. They reportedly underwent drug rehabilitation.
Belmonte, who is reportedly running for mayor for next year’s national and local elections, asserted that Resolution 20CC-920 will actually “further strengthen City Ordinance 2460, or The Implementation of a Drug-Free Workplace Program, that requires all 14,000 City Hall officials and employees, including elected barangay officials and their staff, to undergo random drug test at least once a year.”