VP Duterte in favor of random drug test: Gov't officials must be in their right minds
Vice President Sara Duterte is fully supporting a bill filed by her brother, Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte, that would mandate all elected and appointed officials, including the president, to undergo “mandatory random” drug testing every six months.
Vice President Sara Duterte (File Photo/MANILA BULLETIN)
“Yes, of course, oo. Unang una dapat talaga mapanigurado nating lahat na nasa tamang pag-iisip yung ating mga public officials, kasama na ako doon (Yes, of course, yes. First of all, we should ensure that all of our public officials are in the right frame of mind, that includes me),” she said during an interview in her hometown of Davao City on Thursday night, Aug. 15.
The official added that she’s up to former presidential spokesman Harry Roque’s dare to take a hair follicle drug test as he called on the Duterte siblings to “lead by example.”
“Yes, yes. Opo. Nababasa ko na yung mga panawagan ng mga tao. At aayusin na lang natin kung kailan yun. Kasi dapat siguro doon na mayroong unang una, third party na kasali doon sa testing (Yes. I read the people’s call. We will arrange when is that because first and foremost, there should be a third party involved in the testing),” she said.
Duterte added that the testing shouldn’t be done by one laboratory alone, and that there should be another to validate the results.
Her brother filed House Bill 10744, which seeks to amend Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 to specify that all screening tests will be done through hair follicle testing.
Confirmatory tests can be done using urine drug tests, the bill added.
The proposed measure would cover all elected and appointed officials, including the President.
Last month, former president Rodrigo Duterte challenged President Marcos to undergo a hair follicle drug test after Malacañang denied that the Chief Executive was the one in a viral video showing a man doing drugs.