DepEd eyes drug tests for students
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education (DepEd) is looking into the possibility of conducting drug tests on students but Secretary Leonor Briones said parents must give their consent first.
As this developed, the Supreme Court announced that 240 more regional trial courts nationwide were designated to hear illegal drug cases. These are in addition to the existing 715 RTCs already assigned to deal with violations of Republic Act 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
At the Senate, incoming Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III gave assurance that the resolution filed by Sen. Leila de Lima calling for an inquiry into the alleged summary executions of drug suspects would be referred to the appropriate committee for action even if he was personally against it.
In mulling drug tests for students, Briones said their protection must also be considered and the testing should be conducted only on a portion of the population.
“We have to be very careful (when dealing with the youth) because they might think they are being suspected of something,” Briones said over dzMM. – With Edu Punay, Marvin Sy
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