A DRUG test will no longer be mandatory for those applying for or renewing a driver’s license. How soon? That will depend on how fast the paperwork can get done.
A team from the Office of the Solicitor-General is expected in Cebu within the week for a case briefing in the 19th Division of the Court of Appeals, which is based in Cebu. The appellate court recently reversed a decision by the Toledo Regional Trial Court (RTC) that held that a drug test remains mandatory for driver’s license applicants.
Victor Emmanuel Caindec, director of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7, confirmed that a team from the solicitor-general’s office is expected in Cebu tomorrow.
He said that LTO Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante and Executive Director Romeo Vera Cruz will soon issue an order to stop the requirement of drug tests for those applying for or renewing their driver’s license.
“So, they will issue an order, and then we can take the appropriate actions,” Caindec told SunStar Superbalita Cebu last Friday. He said that Galvante and Cruz informed him about the appeals court’s decision in a meeting last week.
In a 19-page decision, the appeals court’s 19th Division set aside a decision penned by RTC Branch 59 Judge Hermes Montero in Toledo City on maintaining the mandatory drug test for those applying for a driver’s license.
This requirement was waived in Republic Act 10586 or the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013, which then President Benigno Aquino III signed last May 27, 2013.
The appeals court found that the RTC’s decision showed “grave abuse of discretion and was therefore void. All acts emanating from them have no force and effect.”
“The writ of preliminary injunction issued in favor of private respondents, which eventually became permanent in the assailed decision, has no legal effect,” part of the decision read.
A resident of Toledo City, Dulcisimo Tuldanes, had filed the case questioning a memorandum from Department of Transportation and Communications Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres last June 27, 2013. For Tuldanes, RA 10586 did not repeal Section 36 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
But the appeals court found that Tuldanes’ argument—it would be unjust if the mandatory drug tests were not sustained—was not enough for the RTC to issue a writ of preliminary injunction. Among his claims was that a truck hit his gate because the driver was a drug user. (SCG of Superbalita)