COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The governor of North Cotabato has ordered a random drug test for provincial employees following Saturday’s arrest of a subordinate-worker for peddling shabu.
Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, incensed by the arrest of Bandro Teparan Olimpain, said she will immediately remove any employee from the personnel roster of the provincial government after testing positive for drugs.
“I will do outright termination from the service of those proven to be using drugs, or are into illegal drugs trade,” Mendoza said.
Olimpain is connected with the engineering department of the provincial government.
He was arrested in a dragnet set by the police in his hometown in Kabacan, North Cotabato over the weekend.
Supt. Renante Cabico, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said agents cuffed Olimpain while in the act of selling shabu to policemen disguised as drug dependents.
Olimpain was the 33rd drug trafficker arrested in Kabacan by Cabico and his men in a crackdown they launched late October this year.
Mendoza said she will immediately fire Olimpain once the report on his arrest reaches her office.
“It’s very dangerous to have drug dependents and drug traffickers in the government service,” Mendoza said.