Friday, October 12, 2007 Drug use not ground to disqualify candidates
CANDIDATES may now be rushing to take drug tests, but Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Castillano admitted that being found positive of drugs is not a ground for disqualification.
Castillano’s admission is another support for critics of the requirement, which some sectors believed is unconstitutional and whose results are not accurate or entirely reliable anyway.
“That is true, but who would submit positive results?” said Castillano.
Midnight of Oct. 18 is the deadline for the submission of drug test certificates of candidates for the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this Oct. 29.
Requirements
But even deadlines are not usually met by all candidates. In the last May local and national elections, for example, five candidates for provincial positions did not bother to submit the requirement. A Comelec official also said there was even a candidate for senator who failed to give the certificate.
In the last election, the Comelec field offices submitted to the Central Office their lists of candidates who failed to submit drug tests.
Those who won in the elections but failed to submit drug test results could not assume office, but Castillano also said the Comelec does not make a follow up or make any action based on their list after the elections.
“Assumption of office is not the jurisdiction of the Comelec, election raman amo,” he said.
It is not the Omnibus Election Code that requires drug testing for candidates, but another law.
Section 36 (g) of Article 3 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 provides that “all candidates for public office whether appointed or elected both in the national government shall undergo a mandatory drug test.”
The drug testing shall be done by any government drug testing centers accredited and monitored by the Department of Health to safeguard the quality of the test result.
Since the requirement was first imposed during the elections in 2004, several people already raised objections.
Provincial Board (PB) Member Victor Maambong, for example, had cited that there are always ways to pass the test so for it to be effective, it should be randomly conducted. (JPM)
