SENATE President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday underwent voluntary drug testing amid President Duterte’s allegation that a presidential aspirant is using illegal drugs.
Sotto and Lacson, who are running for vice president and president respectively, in next year’s elections, said they were tested at the headquarters of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Quezon City.
The PDEA later released results of their tests, which said the urine samples “do not contain any dangerous drugs under RA 9165 (Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022).”
This developed as PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said the police will coordinate with the PDEA and other government agencies involved in the war against illegal drugs to identify the presidential aspirant that Duterte said is using cocaine.
Sotto said their test they underwent at the PDEA Laboratory Service “was not the ordinary testing.”
“PDEA uses a multi-drug testing kit. It can check all types of illegal drugs. Encompassing holistic drug test. Ordinary testing only checks marijuana and shabu,” Sotto said in a message to media after they submitted their urine samples.
PDEA said the test is called “multi-drug, one-step immunometric assay for the detection of drugs of abuse in urine.”
Last week, President Duterte said a presidential aspirant is a known cocaine user and from a well-known wealthy family. He also called the aspirant “a weak leader… except for the name.”
Duterte, at an event yesterday in General Santos City, said he is not forcing anyone to believe his revelation about the cocaine-using aspirant.
Duterte, as to why he did not order the arrest of the aspirant, said he knows it would be difficult to catch the person in the act. He also said the rich usually take illegal drugs while they are aboard a yacht or a plane.
“If you do not believe it, leave it that way. Basta sinabi ko do not let it be said later on that I did not tell you (“If you do not believe it, leave it that way. I have already said it, do not let it be said later on that I did not tell you),” he added.
Sen. Christopher Go, a presidential aspirant being supported by Duterte, said he is willing to undergo drug testing anytime to prove who is fit to lead the country.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa expressed belief Duterte will “later” reveal the name of the presidential aspirant.
He said knowing Lacson, he is sure the former PNP chief is not into illegal drugs use. So is Go and Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao.
As for Vice President Leni Robredo, Dela Rosa said she seems in tip-top shape, but is unsure about Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
“Si Isko Moreno hindi ko rin sigurado kasi hindi ko masyadong kilala, galing siya sa showbiz (As for Isko Moreno, I am not sure because I really don’t know him. He is from show business),” said Dela Rosa, a former PNP who led Duterte’s war against illegal drugs. “Si Bongbong Marcos, wala akong alam diyan. (As for Bongbong Marcos, I don’t have any information).”
Marcos, among the presidential aspirants, has a popular father — the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. but Marcos’ lawyer, Victor Rodriguez, earlier said they did not feel alluded to.
Carlos, asked if the PNP will coordinate with President Duterte to identify the cocaine-using aspirant, said, “He is our commander-in-chief so we will take the appropriate steps. There are ways how we will be able to get that from the commander.”
Meanwhile, Carlos sought to clarify reports that quoted him as daring candidates in the 2022 elections to submit themselves to drug test. He said he was merely encouraging them to take the test.
“We did not dare them… We just encouraged them, it’s their free will,” he said, adding however that “we in the (PNP) organization undergo regular random drug test or once a year to show that we are free from illegal substance.” — With Victor Reyes, Jocelyn Montemayor and Ashzel Hachero
