MANILA -- The Department of Justice (DOJ) expressed support to the Dangerous Drugs Board's (DDB) stand on the implementation of a one-strike policy in dismissing government personnel who will be found positive for illegal drug use.
“I agree that a government official found positive for illegal drugs should be dismissed,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said when sought for comments regarding Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Chairman Catalino Cuy's declaration that public officials and employees should be dismissed from the service once they are found positive for illegal drugs for the first offense.
“The government campaign against illegal drugs should include, first and foremost, its own ranks. Since drug use is a criminal offense,” Guevarra said.
“Any government official found guilty of a criminal offense, malversation, for example, is also administratively liable. We are standing our ground. It’s a DDB regulation and we wanted to be strict with government officials,” he said.
However, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued last year a resolution to let drug-using government employees undergo treatment and rehabilitation.
So far, the DDB and CSC have agreed that all uniformed personnel should be subjected to the one-strike policy -- police, military and law enforcement agents, including those of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
In line with President Rodrigo Duterte's directive, the government's campaign against illegal drugs, from July 2016 up to June this year, authorities yielded a total of 147,802 individuals involved in illegal drugs.
Of this number, some 229 were elected officials, 52 were uniformed personnel, and 245 were government employees.
Duterte has repeatedly declared that he will not stop his crackdown against illegal drugs that resulted in the killing of 4,354 drug personalities in legitimate police operations.
In the said period a total value of illegal drugs seized are PHP21.29 billion while 2,738.73 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as "shabu", with an estimated value of PHP14.66 billion were also seized where in 714. 92 kilograms of shabu were confiscated from smuggling and 318. 39 kilograms were confiscated from manufacturing -- particularly from the dismantling of clandestine laboratories.
It added that 6,562 out of 42,036 barangays in the country were already cleared of illegal drugs from July 2016 to June 2018.
The agencies involved in the anti-illegal drugs operations are PDEA, NBI, Philippine National Police, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Bureau of Customs among others. (PNA)
