PNP-FG junks drug test of sacked cop chief

The Philippine National Police-Forensic Group on Saturday stood by the accuracy of its drug test and stressed it will not recognize the belated negative result of sacked Mandaluyong police chief Col. Cesar Gerente.

"What we honor for purposes of investigation and challenging the tests we conducted is for third-party entities to conduct the drug test using the same urine sample where he tested positive," PNP-FG director Brig. Gen. Constancio Chinayog said.

Gerente earlier claimed he was neither a drug addict nor a drug user.

This was even after he tested positive for drugs during the screening test on 24 August conducted in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.

A second drug test on 26 August confirmed his urine sample was positive for the presence of methamphetamine hydrochloride, the active ingredient of shabu or crystal meth.

"He can present whatever he has, but for the Forensic Group, we stick to our findings," Chinayog noted.

From 1 January to 31 August, a total of 25 police officers, including Gerente, tested positive on confirmatory drug tests conducted on more than 115,000 personnel.

Gerente showed that he tested negative for illegal drugs in subsequent drug tests conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and a Department of Health-accredited testing center on 29 August, and by the National Bureau of Investigation on 6 September.

Gerente suspected that being exposed to drug evidence and his intake of maintenance medicine — particularly rosuvastatin (for lowering bad cholesterol) and metformin (for treating type-2 diabetes) — might have been a reason for the earlier positive results.

Earlier, PNP Public Information chief and spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said eight police officers across the country have been dismissed from the service after testing positive for illegal drug use since January this year.

"Twenty-five PNP personnel were positive from 1 January to 31 August, 2023, eight were dismissed while the other resigned so the remaining are undergoing summary hearing proceedings," she said.

Among the 25 was Col. Gerente, who was relieved from his post as chief of the Mandaluyong City Police Office while the rest are police non-commissioned officers.

Gerente yielded a positive result during random drug testing on Aug. 24 with top officials of the National Capital Region Police Office and other commanders and chiefs of different offices and support units.

He was the highest-ranked among those who tested positive.

"It's really sad na isang third level officer was positive in  drug test but on hindsight ay tinitingnan din natin na ito ay resulta ng (is we also see that this is a result of) continuing internal cleansing within the PNP na kahit ikaw ay third level ay hindi ka exempted dito sa mga ginagawa nating random drug test. Doon natin tinitingnan yun na this will serve as a warning everyone hindi lang mga NCOs, pati kami sa third level ay hindi kami exempted sa conduct ng random drug test (that even if you are third level, you are not exempt from the random drug tests we do. That's where we are looking at that this will serve as a warning to everyone not only NCOs, even us at the third level are not exempted from the conduct of random drug tests)," Fajardo said.

Earlier, PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said the conduct of random drug tests will continue as part of internal cleansing efforts.