• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Regular employees of the Negros Occidental provincial government tested positive for use of illegal drugs may also face dismissal from government service, Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said yesterday.
Some 27 employees were tested positive for drug use, of which majority are casual, job order (JO), and contract of service (COS) workers, as confirmed earlier by Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.
Citing the Provincial Drug-Free Workplace Ordinance, Nellas said there should be a confirmatory testing for regular employees tested positive for drug use.
Once they are found positive again, they will undergo administrative proceedings for grave misconduct, which, if merited, warrants the penalty of dismissal from service, he added.
Nellas assured them of due process, if they will challenge the drug testing results, at their own expense.
The job contracts of casual, JO and COS workers, who were tested positive for use of illegal drugs, were not renewed by the provincial government.
“We can’t have employees, being paid by taxpayer’s money, who are drug users,” Nellas said. | GB
