CHED TO CONDUCT RANDOM DRUG TESTING ON STUDENTS

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will begin to conduct random
drug testing on students and faculty members of more than 1,700 colleges
and universities all over the country next month.

Dr. Emmanuel Angeles, CHED chairman, also bared the release of P6 million
for the program.

Angeles said that the tests would be given randomly and that the results
would be kept secret.

"The drug tests will cover all 1,726 colleges and universities in the
country," Angeles said at a press briefing.

He said students who test positive would undergo counseling and would be
subject to regular monitoring. Habitual users would be made to undergo
drug rehabilitation.

Dr. Karen Castaneda, director of CHED's Office for Programs and Standards,
said the fund allocation would be enough for 15 drug tests per
institution.

She pointed out that they had already conducted random drug tests in some
schools and that the current program would expand the coverage of the
testing to include all institutions of higher learning.

Castaneda recalled that in previous years' drug testing campaign, students
who tested positive for drug use were mostly from provincial schools,
particularly in the Caraga and Cordillera regions. Last year's drug
testing covered 250 colleges and universities.

Gov't Officials First

The United Opposition challenged President Arroyo yesterday to start the
mandatory drug testing in her own backyard, with her officials, law
enforcers and their families being made to undergo the procedure first.

"If the Arroyo administration is serious about winning the war against
illegal drugs, government officials and law enforcers as well as their
families who can afford drugs in the first place should be the ones to
undergo mandatory drug testing first," UNO spokesman Adel Tamano said.

Tamano said drug testing would be a potential money-making scheme for the
Arroyo administration.

"The only plausible reason that the Arroyo administration is choosing the
public school system for drug testing is because it is a potential money
making scheme involving more than a million students in over 8,000
schools," he said. "It does not take a genius to understand that the
billions of pesos involved are better used to close the gap in the lack of
classrooms and books in the public school system."

He said the proposed drug testing would only lead to more corruption, like
the drug test program of the Land Transportation Office for applicants of
driver's license.

He said many drivers of utility vehicles complain that corrupt LTO
personnel use the program for extortion.

"This is not the serious preemptive war on drugs that was promised by
President Arroyo, the self-proclaimed anti-drug czar," Tamano said. - With
Rodel Clapano