PNP on Sara bodyguards: No request yet for return

MANILA, Philippines — There is no formal request from Vice President Sara Duterte for the replacement of 31 members of her security detail or the appointment of new ones, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Col. Jean Fajardo, PNP spokesperson, said on Monday the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG) is awaiting an official communiqué on the matter from Duterte’s camp.

“They haven’t received a formal request yet coming from the Office of the Vice President regarding her wish for new security officers or at least the replacement of the 31 remaining with her,” Fajardo said over dzBB radio.

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, at a Senate hearing earlier, asked PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil to reinstate Duterte’s most trusted police escorts who had been reassigned.

Marbil, in response, committed to reinstate the reassigned police officers who had been detailed with Duterte for a long time.

Fajardo said the PSPG will act on Duterte’s request.

“As soon as we get a formal request, we can grant,” Fajardo said.

Duterte earlier denounced the PNP’s reassignment of 75 members of her security detail, describing it as political harassment.

But the PNP stressed there was nothing political about the removal of the police officers, as they were needed in Metro Manila.

Fajardo said the police officers withdrawn from the security detail of Duterte and other VIPs are undergoing refresher courses.

Random drug tests

Meanwhile, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte has filed a bill mandating the sitting president and other government officials to take random drug test every six months using hair follicle and urine “for more accurate result.”

“Being at the forefront of public service with the mandate towards integrity and modesty, it is imperative that public officials and government employees should be the very first to uphold such constitutional mandate by submitting themselves towards accountability measures that serve as a tool in addressing the fulfillment of the mandate,” Duterte said in the explanatory note of his House Bill 10744.

The bill also encourages institutionalizing voluntary random drug testing of candidates for electoral posts within 90 days prior to election day, amending Republic Act 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

“Considering the initiatives towards the deterrence of drug use and abuse, exemptions or favors in the mandatory nature of random drug testing shall not extend to certain class privilege such as the elected and appointed officials, since it becomes imperative upon their own mandate that they shall lead the life of modesty and integrity,” the bill read.

Duterte filed the bill in the wake of insinuations from him and his family’s supporters that President Marcos was into drugs. The President shrugged off calls from his detractors in the Duterte camp for him to undergo drug test. — Sheila Crisostomo, Diana Lhyd Suelto