Random Drug Testing for Students in the Philippines

The Department of Education has announced that they will be conducting a mandatory random drug testing to all high schools and colleges in the Philippines. This is in response to the call of the President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to combat the worsening cases of drug related incidents in the Philippines. The Philippines has been facing huge problem when it comes to drug prevention and that includes drug addiction, drug using and drug trafficking. Most recent scandal was the "Alabang Boys"(Richard Brodett, Joseph Tecson and Jorge Joseph) scandal that includes 3 men from prominent families in Alabang that was caught by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last September in a buy bust operation. This case was later on turn into a big controversy as the birbery issue of the families into the DOJ prosecutors were later revealed by PDEA. As of this moment, this controversy is still under trial by the independent panel created by the president. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo later appointed herself as the National Anti-Drug Prevention czar to lead the country to fight drug and one of the solution is to conduct random drug testing to high school and college students in the country. The drug testing has already started in Metro Manila and later will be implemented also in Cebu City and Davao City in Mindanao. According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), majority of the drug addict here in the Philippines were on the age bracket of 15-18 years old so conducting random drug testing in schools will somehow lessen and maybe eradicate drug addiction among youths.

This proposal has been subject to criticism by human rights group in the country. They pointed out that submitting students into drug violates the right to privacy of the students. Add on to that, drug testing should not be compulsory but voluntary. This action of the government has also receive a lot of both positive and negative comments from the students who will be greatly affected by this actions of the government. According to some who were interviewed by T.V stations," conducting random drug testing in schools will results in positive effects like reducing the number of drug addicts in the country specially the students". But some of them don't favor this program of the government."Conducting random drug testing for students will not solve the worsening problem of drug addiction in the country. If the government wan't to completely eradicate drugs in this country, they (the government) must go after those wealthy drug lords and drug syndicates that are freely moving in the country. They must prosecute those who will be caught.

Being a college student, I am also affected by this current issues in our society. For me, submitting myself for drug test is not a big deal for me because first, I am 100% sure that I am a not a drug user. This goes also for all the students in the Philippines, if they are not addict, then why fear? Issues of privacy could be solved by keeping private the records of the students who will be positive to any forms of drugs. School administration should be held liable if this information will be exposed to the outside world. Also this will help parents know if their child is using drugs. They could later decide to send their child to a rehabilitation center.

But still this program of CHED and the government still has a lot of holes to be fixed and still not the best solution to completely eradicate drug addiction in the country. Students are only victims here. They are the victims of this powerful and very influential drug lords and drug syndicate that are still free and doing the damage in our society. The government must think of long term solutions to completely erase drugs in the Philippines. They must prosecute those who were caught. There are a lot of drug laboratories found by the police but there is no single individual who were caught. The government should implement the law. But this battle is not only for the government alone but also for everybody. Everyone of us should take part on solving drug problems. We are fully aware that drugs will kill our future so why use them? For sure we can completely defeat drugs if everyone of us will take its part and be vigilant.