BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO – Central Philippine University (CPU) is keen on shielding its students from illegal drugs, said Dr. Teodoro Robles, university president.
He had proposed to the CPU Board of Trustees a random drug testing policy, he told Reklamo Publiko program yesterday.
Robles proposed that not only students must be randomly drug tested, but also CPU employees and teaching staff.
The university president is also open to holding anti-illegal drug forums in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“We want to prevent the spread of illegal drugs,” said Robles, the fourth Filipino president of CPU.
He recalled CPU hosting a huge anti-illegal drug gathering a few years ago organized by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
The activity attracted over 10,000 elementary pupils across Iloilo, Robles said.
He stressed the importance of educating students, CPU faculty and staff about the ill-effects of illegal drugs to social order.
Anti-illegal drug education must start even at the elementary level, Robles said, so that the young would never succumb to the temptation of experimenting the vice when they grow up.
He expressed alarm that many adults had already yielded to drug addiction.
Robles, who taught at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in the United States prior to his appointment as CPU president in 2008, also lamented that while “small fishes” had been caught by the police and PDEA, the “big fishes” remain scot-free.
In his speech during the November 3, 2008 signing ceremonies on his appointment as CPU president, Robles vowed to “preside over an open administration, mindful of the fact that we have a community of talented, energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated individuals that fully subscribe to the vision and mission of Central Philippine University.”
Robles is an alumnus of CPU.
“I am a proud product of CPU where I learned that Christian values developed since my childhood is as important as knowledge gained preparatory to my professional journey,” he stressed./PN
