PHILIPPINE National Police ( PNP) chief, General Debold M. Sinas yesterday ordered the filing of criminal and administrative charges against a member of the Manila Police District (MPD) who tested positive during a surprise drug test conducted by the PNP Crime Laboratory last December 10.
Sinas said he has also ordered the possibility of returning the authority of police regional directors to fire any of their men who will test positive for use of shabu and marijuana during random drug testing.
He added that before, the PNP Internal Affairs Service and not the PROs conducted a pre-charge investigation of all police personnel who test positive for illegal drugs.
When he was still the Police Regional Office 7 director in Central Visayas, Sinas ordered the dismissal of nine PRO7 personnel who tested positive for drugs.
At the National Capital Region Police Office which he formerly headed before he was designated by President Duterte as PNP chief last November 10, Sinas ordered the firing from the police force of 18 NCRPO members who also tested positive for shabu or marijuana use.
According to PNP Crime Laboratory director, Brigadier Gen. Steve B. Ludan, MSgt. Leonardo Mariano Jr., assigned with the MPD Station 10 was among the 74 Police Non-Commissioned Officers who were required to undergo a drug test while undergoing a finance course last December 10 at the NCRPO Hinirang Multi-Purpose Hall in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.
Ludan said that of the 74 PNCOs who submitted their urine specimen to the NCR Regional Crme Laboratory, it was only the urine sample of Mariano who tested positive for methampethamine hydro-choloride or shabu during the initial screening.
The same urine sample also tested positive during a confirmatory test done thru the use of a GCMS or Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry machine at the Crime Laboratory office in Camp Crame.
As a policy, all policemen who test positive for drugs are automatically stripped of their PNP-issued firearms and other government properties and transferred to Personnel Holding and Administrative Unit of the police force.
