Senate Minority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Sunday urged Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero to implement mandatory random drug testing among senators and their staff members.
In a letter, Sotto said the initiative aims “to ensure that the morale, efficiency, integrity, responsiveness, progressiveness and courtesy shall be observed in civil service.”
He made the call in response to “several news articles circulated regarding an alleged use of marijuana within the Senate premises, particularly on the 5th floor.”
The proposal followed an incident on Tuesday, 12 August, when a staff member of Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson reported detecting the scent of marijuana in a Senate restroom.
Sotto recalled that the Senate had previously conducted mandatory random drug tests in 2018, in compliance with the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, Civil Service Commission rules, and Senate policy.
Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri announced that he and his staff would undergo drug testing on Monday, 18 August, and urged his colleagues to do the same, saying, “Lawmakers should not be lawbreakers.”
Meanwhile, Senator Robin Padilla asked actress Nadia Montenegro, who denied using marijuana inside the Senate, to take a leave of absence from her role in his staff.
Padilla’s office has also launched its own investigation into the issue, according to his chief of staff, Atty. Rudolf Philip Jurado.
Official Senate communication noted that Montenegro was formally required by the chamber to explain the events that led to the alleged detection of marijuana scent in the ladies’ restroom.
Montenegro said she only had vape in her possession and that neither was she smoking nor using marijuana, contrary to the reports’ implications.