Employees found positive for drugs to be dismissed, PLO Nellas reiterates

Regular employees of the provincial government who were found positive for illegal drug use in confirmatory tests will be dismissed.

Negros Occidental Provincial Legal Officer, Atty. Alberto Nellas said regular employees who tested positive will face administrative charges and subsequent dismissal from service.

He said results of confirmatory tests will soon be out. “Once they get positive in the confirmatory tests, regular employees would face administrative proceedings for grave misconduct and could be dismissed from service,” Nellas said.

A total of 27 provincial government employees, some of them job order (JO) and Contract of Service (COS), casual, and regular employees tested positive for illegal drug use conducted last month.

He said an employee who will be found positive in the confirmatory test “can challenge at their own expense,” adding thatvl only the governor and the provincial administrator have the copies of the test results and confirmatory tests done by a company contracted by the province.

The contracts of JOs and COs who tested positive were no longer renewed for the year, he also added.* (CGNB)