Forty six job order (JO) workers and regular employees of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) and the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) have tested positive for the use of illegal drugs.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Tuesday, August 1, that the JO workers who tested positive will be immediately terminated and subjected to drug rehabilitation.
The regular employees will be suspended and a process will be followed before termination.
There were 640 POSO and BTAO workers tested since the weekend and 6 percent were found positive, retired general Primitivo Tabujara, POSO head, said.
The results showed 29 BTAO workers and 17 from the POSO positive for the use of illegal drugs, he said.
The tests started at the city government workers started at the BTAO and POSO because of reports from the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency of the existence of illegal drug users, Tabujara said.
Benitez said surprise drugs tests of city government employees and officials will also be conducted.
Ideally everybody should undergo the tests, he said.
Maybe it will be a call for all public officials, including those elected into office, to do the same to make it fair to all, he said.
To set the example for more city employees to be tested the mayor took a drug test Tuesday and tested negative.
A proposed ordinance has been filed in the Sangguniang Panlungsod to strengthen the city’s drug testing measures.*