The Vice President ready to take the hair follicle drug test
MANILA, Philippines – VICE President Sara Duterte is all in support of her brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte’s bill seeking to conduct random drug testing of all public officials, including the President.
“Yes of course. Unang-una dapat panigurado nating lahat na nasa tamang pag-iisip ‘yung ating mga public officials, kasama na ako doon,” the Vice President said in an ambush interview Thursday.
The Davao representative authored House Bill 10744 which proposed random drug testing using hair follicle samples. Once an individual tests positive, a confirmatory urine drug test will follow.
The Vice President said she is ready anytime to submit to the test and her team only needs to iron out how to make it happen.
“Nababasa ko na yung panawagan ng mga tao at aayusin na lang natin kung kelan ‘yun. Dapat may third party na kasali doon sa testing at hindi lang isa ang laboratory para sure tayong naba-validate yung results. Gawin natin yung drug test,” she said.
The bill also states that Government officials who will test positive may be suspended or terminated from office.
Also, the measure proposes that electoral candidates “are not precluded from undergoing voluntary hair follicle drug test” within 90 days before election day.
According to Quest Diagnostics, hair testing for drugs of abuse is the only method available that provides up to a 90-day drug use history. Also when compared with urine testing, hair testing provides nearly twice the number of positives due to its longer detection window.
The once tight relations of the Dutertes and the Marcoses started to turn sour in 2023 when the Marcos allies-dominated Congress stripped the Vice President’s request for confidential and intelligence funds.
Thereafter, President Marcos Jr. and former President Duterte began to trade accusations of drug use.
Because of worsening political tensions, the Vice President, who campaigned as Marcos’ running mate and who many thought was a crucial element in the President’s win, quit the Marcos cabinet in June.
Last month, the pro-Duterte group Hakbang ng Maisug released a now-debunked video showing a man closely resembling the state chief sniffing a white substance that many concluded to be a form of prohibited drugs.
Back in 2018, Congressman Duterte filed a libel case against former Sen. Antonio Trillanes when the staunch Duterte critic accused him and his father of having links to drug trade in the country contrasting the former President’s war on drugs, the anchor program of his Presidential campaign.
