• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The number of Capitol employees tested positive for use of illegal drugs does not alarm Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.
“It is not alarming, but they will suffer the consequences,” Lacson said yesterday.
Of the close to 4,000 provincial government employees, 20 were tested positive for illegal drugs.
It was not determined yet how many are job order (JO), contract of service (COS), casual or regular employees.
More than 2,300 of them were already drug tested, including elected officials of the provincial government, as of last week.
Lacson said a confirmatory testing is expected to be held before the year ends.
“That was their choice to do what they did. Unfortunately for them, we did the drug testing,” the governor said.
Lacson also said that regular employees tested positive will have to go through administrative hearing.
The contract of JO and COS workers as well as casual employees will end Dec. 31 this year.
They will not be renewed if the result of the confirmatory test is positive again, Lacson said. | GB
