Isabela VM tests negative after drug screening
Reina Mercedes Vice Mayor Jeryll Harold Respicio underwent voluntary drug testing at a hospital on Wednesday following public calls from Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla for the local official to undergo screening.
Respicio submitted to testing at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City after Remulla publicly criticized his conduct during a municipal council session in Isabela. Official hospital receipts shared by Respicio showed a cash payment of P28,011 for the screening procedure.
The controversy stems from a livestreamed confrontation during a Sangguniang Bayan session in Reina Mercedes, Isabela, where Respicio engaged in a heated argument with local barangay leaders over uncompleted infrastructure projects funded by tobacco excise taxes.
The exchange required police officers present at the municipal hall to intervene.
Meantime, Remulla said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) deferred initial administrative review of the incident to Isabela Governor Rodolfo Albano III, while advising that the vice mayor undergo substance testing due to his conduct during the council meeting.
Respicio countered by challenging Remulla to take a public drug test alongside him and requesting a reimbursement for the screening fee.
In the wake of the incident, the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) called on presiding officers nationwide to maintain parliamentary decorum and order during legislative sessions.
VMLP national president Maynard Francis Bumanglag stated that while vice mayors have a duty to scrutinize public spending and demand financial accountability, discussions must remain professional.
“A vice mayor, as presiding officer of the Sangguniang, carries with him the responsibility to maintain order, decorum and respect during legislative proceedings,” Bumanglag said in a statement. “The authority to preside is not simply the authority to speak; it is the responsibility to control the proceedings.”
Bumanglag stressed that questioning the allocation of tobacco excise tax funds is a legitimate exercise of oversight, but cited that shouting and personal accusations should not become accepted forms of parliamentary conduct.
He added that the VMLP would defer to official administrative channels rather than prejudge Respicio.
DILG officials confirmed that national authorities are separately investigating the conduct of the responding police personnel involved in the municipal hall intervention while provincial authorities review the administrative circumstances surrounding the session confrontation.