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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Friday, April 7, 2017
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ILOILO City – “If you refuse a drug test, what does that imply? If you’re not hiding anything, drug testing shouldn’t be an issue,” said Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
He is pushing for the drug testing of barangay officials. But the mayor isn’t sure if the drug testing should be mandatory or voluntary.
“We will discuss this with the City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) and Iloilo City Anti-Illegal Drug Abuse Council (ICADAC) after Holy Week,” said Mabilog.
The city has 180 barangay councils; 39 have so far reported having all their officials drug tested.
“As I understand it, one of the guidelines for declaring a barangay drug-free is for all its officials to undergo drug testing,” said Mabilog.
Even barangay tanods must be tested, too, he added.
July last year, Mabilog and 74 city government department heads voluntarily had themselves tested for illegal drugs at a private medical laboratory on Mabini Street, City Proper.
They all paid for the test using their personal money.
“Despite sang mga issues nga ginahaboy sa akon, I’ll come out clean,” Mabilog told reporters at city hall after he was tested. “I’m sure that I am clean. I have never been into drugs. Maski isa ka suyop, singhot, wala [ako] kag.”
All of them passed the test.
A month after this, however, President Rodrigo Duterte accused Mabilog of being a coddler of drug traffickers.
Yesterday, Mabilog expressed confidence that “sooner or later, it will be officially announced nga wala gid man ko ya sa (illegal drugs) lista.”
“The truth is I have never been involved in any illegal activities especially illegal drugs,” he stressed.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 recently cleared Mabilog./PN
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