BY 2020, business establishments employing more than 10 would no longer be able to secure or renew business permits without conducting a random drug test and formulating anti-drug programs.
Ronaldo Rivera, program director of Tabangan Atong Reformist Aron Naa’y Asenso (Tara Na!) of the Davao City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac), said during the AFP-PNP press corps on Wednesday, December 19, that they began to conduct an information dissemination campaign after Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio signed the executive order promulgating the implementing rules and regulations of a drug-free workplace program.
“In 2013, there was an ordinance in the city requiring all corporations employing more than 10 to have an anti-drug abuse program or a drug-free workplace policy,” he said, referring to City Ordinance 0506-13.
Companies must have a program to educate their employees, their families and the communities on the ill-effects of illegal drugs, how to treat drugs and how to recover or manage it.
“We are pursuing what was already provided by law of RA 9165. In fact, in the Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy (PADS), na-stipulate doon na institutionalization of drug-free workplace policy as a means of our preventive program. Because in it, ang feature kasi ng drug-free workplace is advocacy, training and education component,” Rivera added.
It will be part of the requirements in the acquisition and renewal of business permit and failure to comply will result to the disapproval of the business permit.
In 2019, they will start the information dissemination during the renewal or acquisition of business permits so that the businessmen and the employers can prepare the needed requirements. Not only that, Cadac will also conduct random drug testing but it will have a three-year drug abuse plan for the employees, their families and the communities.