ILOILO City – Two officers under the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) tested positive for illegal drug use.
They were subjected to mandatory drug testing in June after their names surfaced in the monitoring of officers for possible involvement in the drug trade, said PRO-6 spokeswoman Superintendent Joem Malong.
Results indicated that the two officers were using methamphetamine hydrochloride, more commonly known as shabu, Malong said.
One of them is a Senior Police Officer 1 assigned at the Administrative Section of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office while the other is a Police Officer 3 from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, she added.
While they may still undergo confirmatory test within 15 days, they are already under pre-charge investigation by the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division.
That the Senior Police Office 1 tested positive for drug use came as a surprise to the provincial police director Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba.
This officer “tested negative in the two drug tests I requested earlier this year,” Tayaba said, noting that the officer “does not even smoke and drink.”
Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, said the two officers will be relieved from their posts and detailed at the Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit pending the confirmatory test.
“Definitely, they will not be promoted even in the absence of the confirmatory [test result],” Bulalacao said. “They will be made to surrender their issued firearms and badges, and placed in restricted custody pending completion of the investigation.”
When he assumed as regional police director in June Bulalacao emphasized that “internal cleansing” will be a priority.
“I will accord them due process,” Bulalacao said of officers who test positive for drug use. “If evidence proves that they are indeed using illegal drugs, the full force of the law will be carried out against them.”/PN
