Three students in Cebu positive for illegal drugs

CEBU, Philippines – Fourteen of 17 students whose drug test results were subjected to confirmatory testing yielded positive for using illegal drugs, said Dangerous Drugs Board Undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal.

Three of the 14 students reportedly come from Cebu, two from private schools and one from a public school. The identities of the three students will remain confidential.

Two of the three were found to have used marijuana while one reportedly used shabu. In Cebu, 1,727 students were subjected to the drug tests.

Oaminal said the Department of Health released the official results recently and the principals of the schools where the students are enrolled have already been informed.

Oaminal said the students will undergo counseling to determine if they are drug dependents or first time users. Their schools would also coordinate with the parents.

Oaminal said he received information that one of the three had dropped out of school shortly after the drug testing but the school would reportedly try to look for and convince the student to undergo counseling.

Department of Education Regional Director Recaredo Burgonia said that if the school would be unable to convince the student, DepEd would coordinate with officials of the barangay where the student lives to be the one to provide the student with proper counseling.

Burgonia said it is also important that the parents would help in convincing the student to undergo counseling.

After counseling, the students would reportedly be subjected to rehabilitation, although the same is not mandatory.

Oaminal said the random drug testing would resume in the opening of classes in June, as there are still around 10,000 high schools in the Philippines that would be subjected to the tests.

There are 347 schools in Cebu alone but only 173 have, so far, been subjected to drug testing. The tests started in Cebu here in Region 7 and tests in the neighboring provinces will begin in June.

Burgonia said not all students would be made to undergo the tests owing to budget and time constraints. — AJ A. de la Torre/JMO (THE FREEMAN)