Calling it an undue burden, Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez thumbed down the Department of Transportation's (DOTr) to require public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers to undergo drug testing every 90 days or three months.
“I am appealing to DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon not to impose this mandatory drug testing requirement. It will bring so much hardship to our drivers. It will take away their driving time and income when they take the test,” Rodriguez said in a statement on Friday, May 9.
Rodriguez said the planned requirement would also be expensive on the part of PUV drivers who would pay for the drug screening.
It could likewise give rise to fly-by-night drug testing centers, he warned.
“Furthermore, in the two highly publicized accidents involving the Solid North Bus company and the vehicle that plowed through NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) [Terminal] 1, both drivers were found not to be under the influence of prohibited drugs,” added Rodriguez.
Dizon announced the plan after the Terminal 1 accident, which killed a four-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man.
“People do not feel safe on our streets. That is the reality, that is the dad reality. And I have been directed by the President and to act and to fix it. And that is what we will do. This is the true justice that government can give to the 12 people who have died these past few days, and to all others who have also died or have been injured by road accidents in the past, because the system is broken…we have to admit that to fix it,” the DOTr chief said.
At any rate, Rodriguez said he agreed with Dizon that people do not feel safe in the streets because of reckless and undisciplined drivers.
He proposed that instead of mandatory drug testing every three months, random screening could be conducted at government expense and at the workplace of PUV drivers.
“A drug test team could be sent to the PUV vehicles’ terminal to conduct the screening and those found to have prohibited substances in their system would be punished,” he said.
The lawyer-congressman said concerned agencies already conduct random drug tests, the latest of which was carried out during Holy Week.
He noted that the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has revoked the licenses of 98 PUV drivers who tested positive for illegal drugs in the course of the Holy Week drug screening.
While opposing mandatory drug testing every three months, Rodriguez supported Dizon’s plan to reduce the number of work hours of PUV drivers.
“I support this because the Solid North Bus driver who killed 10 persons, including children, declared that he had fallen asleep before hitting several vehicles queuing at an expressway toll payment plaza in Tarlac,” he said.
He said the random drug test and shorter work hours should be imposed not only on PUV drivers but also on long-haul transporters.