CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Higher Education is now preparing all public and private colleges and universities in Central Visayas for the Random Drug Testing of at least 30 college students per school that will be conducted on the last week of February until the first week of March.
This is pursuant to article 3, section 36 of Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 which mandates that students of tertiary and secondary schools shall undergo drug testing as contained in the student’s handbook and with notice to the parents and provided that expenses will be shouldered by the government.
In region 7, all 158 higher education institutions shall have selected students undergo the testing with no exceptions whether the institution is private or public.
CHED issued the memorandum last year urging the compliance of all schools nationwide.
The memo was for the purpose of informing school administrators, students and parents on the process and manner by which the drug testing will be done.
Education Supervisor III and coordinator of health related programs of CHED Jucell Ann Jumao-as said that since December last year, they have already conducted series of orientations and seminars to all schools regarding the RDT and have started distributing parental consent forms to parents.
Jumao-as said that the orientation is very important to get the confidence of the respondents and make them submit through understanding that the RDT shall be done in compliance with the law.
She said that the commission’s information campaign this time has been intensified as they are trying to avoid the same scenario three years ago when some schools refused to let their students undergo the drug testing due to failure of the supervising agency to properly inform them.
Jumao-as told the students not to be afraid because the testing will be done in utmost confidentiality.
There will be a master list of students that will undergo the testing to be submitted by the schools who were strictly advised that the selection be random.
CHED has requested five teams of medical technologists to facilitate the testing.
If a student be found positive, the result will be relayed to the CHED chairman, who will then relay the information to the school president only.
The possible interventions for those who will test positive may include rehabilitation, peer counseling, leadership programs an psychological counseling at the individual or family level among others.
While children in school are most of the time away from their parents, for mothers like Angelina Manubag who has two kids currently enrolled in two different institutions in Cebu, conducting the drug test is a good idea to discover if her children are not doing anything illegal while they are away from home.
“Okay lang sa akin. Paano naman, maraming oras na ang mga anak ko nasa eskwelahan so di ko sila mabantayan. It will be helpful for me to make sure na nag-aaral lang talaga sila at walang ginagawang kababalaghan,” Manubag said.
The same reaction was expressed by Alma Saavedra, also a mother of third year college student.
She said that she agrees to the testing as long as no rights are being violated.
“Wala siguro’y ginikanan na dili malipay kung mahibaw-an nila na negative ilang anak from drugs. Me as a parent is very willing to submit my kid for drug testing. Para nako, wala’y kabutangan ang sakit kung makit-an sa usa ka parent and damages na ma-cause sa drugs sa iyang anak. Makarelate man ko tungod sa nahitabo sa akong brother,” Saavedra said.
Irvin Villasin believes that there is nothing wrong with the drug testing because for him, it will promote a drug-free community and a drug-free university.
“It is really important for us to know those who are into illegal drugs especially today that there are a lot of problematic students using drugs as their way to escape from their problems,” Villasin said.
Villasin is a third year student taking Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Cebu main campus. — /NLQ (THE FREEMAN)