Drug testing violates Constitution – Palace

MANILA, Philippines —  Sen. Robinhood Padilla’s bill, which seeks to require an annual mandatory drug test for all elected and appointed officials violates the Constitution, according to Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro.

The Palace press officer said the bill may be prohibited by the 2008 Supreme Court (SC) decision “Social Justice Society versus Dangerous Drugs Board,” which states that making drug screening required for government violates the constitutional right to privacy.

“The decision said ‘the operative concepts in mandatory drug testing are randomness and suspicion-less.’ It was compared to persons charged with crimes who were required to undergo mandatory drug testing, where they will not be randomly picked and in instance like this, they already waived the right to privacy. So universal drug testing is against the Constitution, especially the right to privacy,” she said.

Castro said it would be up to the office of Padilla to decide whether to pursue the bill.

Padilla’s chief of staff Rudolf Philip Jurado defended Padilla’s Senate Bill 1200.

For Jurado, the decision states that when a proposed measure has a “reasonable” basis in relation to a “compelling state interest,” the proposal will pass the test of “constitutionality.”

He advised Castro to “let the lawmakers do their job” in debating about Padilla’s measure, and to let the SC decide on its constitutionality if the bill is passed into law.

Jurado also denied singling out the President in the mandatory government drug test.

Padilla’s bill was mocked by House of Representatives minority leader Marcelino Libanan, who called it a mere “gimmick” as the senator’s political affairs officer, actor Nadia Montenegro, faced a Senate investigation for allegedly smoking marijuana in the Senate premises.-  Alexis Romero