PRO-6 chief orders mandatory drug tests on anti-narco cops

By: Jennifer P. Rendon

POLICE Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police director, ordered mandatory drug tests for all members of anti-illegal drugs units.

Pamuspusan said the order is part of their internal cleansing efforts.

Through the Regional Oversight Committee on Illegal Drugs (ROCID), Pamuspusan has required all provincial and city police offices to subject all members of Drug Enforcement Units/Teams to mandatory drug testing.

While he pushes for more accomplishments against illegal activities, Pamuspusan underscored the need to intensify its campaign on internal cleansing “in order to give justice to majority who remain loyal in the PNP service.”

“The random drug testing of other personnel will still be done regularly,” he said.

Pamuspusan also warned during the ROCID meeting on Aug 15, 2019 that personnel who will be found positive for illegal drugs use will be charged for conduct unbecoming of a police officer.

He will also push for their dismissal from the service.

But two days after he made the warning, a rookie policeman was caught using suspected marijuana inside his boarding house at Barangay 37, Bacolod City.

Patrolman Bryan Jephthah Gimotea, 32, of Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, was undergoing a 6-month Field Training Program (FTP) when he was arrested.

Police recovered from him an improvised cigarette rolling pipe containing partly burned suspected dried marijuana leaves worth P700, a plastic containing suspected dried marijuana leaves, and a lighter.

Releors said Gimotea was previously warned by his superiors after receiving report about it until he got caught.

Meanwhile, because of the Squad System, Pamuspusan said “squad mates” of erring personnel will also be investigated for tolerating their member.

“All these measures are being done to ensure that our ranks are clean and our credibility to enforce the laws is intact,” he said.