The Bacolod City government is planning to make mandatory drug testing a requirement for the hiring of job order (JO) workers, City Administrator Pacifico Maghari III said Thursday, August 3.
JO appointments are approved on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on their need, he said.
This developed after 49 JO workers and four regular employees of the city government assigned to the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) and the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) tested positive for the use of illegal drugs.
The JO workers were terminated from their jobs while the regular employees were placed under 60-day preventive suspensions pending investigation, Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Wednesday.
Retired police general Primitivo Tabujara, who is the POSO head, said there are several other city employees being investigated for the use of illegal drugs based on police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reports.
Benitez has ordered the conduct of drug tests of more city employees.
The mayor tested negative for illegal drug use on Tuesday.
Bacolod City consultant on traffic management and anti-graft and corruption, Patrick Lacson, said he voluntarily took a drug test Thursday afternoon and tested negative in line with the campaign of Benitez for a drug free workplace.
Maghari said all city employees are strongly encouraged to undergo drug tests until a pending ordinance making it mandatory is approved by the city council.
“If you have nothing to hide, you would submit yourself to a drug test,” he said.
Mandatory drug testing prior to hiring could be made part of the system, Maghari added.*