1 bus driver tested positive for illegal drugs in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Only one from among 134 drivers of passenger vehicles here turned positive to use of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, during random tests this week.

Juvenal Azurin, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, confirmed on Saturday that only a single driver tested positive to shabu during their October 29 to 31 operations in terminals here.

The three-day activity, dubbed “Undaspot,” was meant to ensure the safety of passengers of buses and vans plying the routes connecting the city to other provinces in Mindanao

Azurin said they will turn over the driver who flunked the drug test to the Department of Health for rehabilitation and counseling.

“We are glad that only one from among 134 drivers we tested was positive to use of shabu,” Azurin said.

Azurin said the PDEA-ARMM conducted the tests in public terminals in Cotabato City for three days with the help of Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi and Superintendent Rolly Octavio, the local police director.

Cynthia-Guiani said she wants the drug tests in public terminals done regularly.

In a statement Saturday, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said he will ask PDEA-ARMM to facilitate drug testing for drivers in key terminals in the province.

The now third-termer Mangudadatu is presiding chairman of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, whose members include PDEA-ARMM and the Maguindanao provincial police.

“I am ready to provide support for such random operation in public terminals in Maguindanao," Mangudadatu said. 

Cotabato City, a component-area of Administrative Region 12, is inside Maguindanao, which is under the autonomous region.

Most franchise of passenger vehicles owned by operators based in Cotabato City also covers the 36 towns in Maguindanao.