MANILA – Illegal drug use pervades the police force – once the lead organization tasked to carry out the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.
A total of 349 police officers tested positive for using shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) from January 2016 to September 2018, latest tally from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory showed.
Drug use is more prevalent among Police Officers 1 with 146 offenders while the highest ranking officer and alleged user on record is a police superintendent, said the Crime Lab director Chief Superintendent Rolando Hinanay.
“Administratively they are charged with grave misconduct. Of course, they will be given due process but ang grave misconduct kasi, ang maximum penalty niyan is dismissal from the service,” Hinanay said.
The National Capital Region Police Office has the highest number of officers who use illegal drugs with 47, followed by Calabarzon with 41 and Zamboanga Peninsula with 37, the Crime Lab official said.
“Tuluy- tuloy iyong aming internal cleansing, random drug testing, to find out kung sinu-sino sa mga personnel namin ang gumagamit ng drugs,” Hanay said. “Totoo, nakakabahala siya, kaya nga ito iyong actions na ginawa ng pamunuan ng PNP upang i-address iyong problem na iyon.”
No police officer in the Cordillera Administrative Region tested positive for illegal drug use. (Lea Ylagan, UNTV News)
