Topic: DepEd Order no. 40, S. 2017
Delegate: Kerr Dico Patalinghug, STEC-SHS Representative
About a year has passed since Duterte earned his spot as the president of the Philippines. His main agenda as of now is to eradicate the population of the country that deals with drugs and other related issues. He’s methods are infamous for being violent and immoral, but he has also made other methods to solve the drug issue; through prevention. DepEd recently issued D.O. no.40, s. 2017. It governs the conduct of random drug testing in private and public secondary schools. It may claim to help in lessening the prevalence of drugs in school, hopefully promoting a drug-free environment. However, the institution, Science and Technology Education Center, begs to disagree that such tests are necessary due to several reasons.
Testing is expensive. Urine samples will be utilized in the test. This may be the least expensive method of drug testing, but conducting the tests also uses other resources that could have been used in other important matters. Funding will be used to train professionals that will be administering and performing treatments and consultations. The test results will be analysed within 15 days. It may seem like a short amount of time, but this amount may double considering that the government plans on having these tests mandatory for all schools. It will also use a lot of work hours which may have been used by the students and workers in more effective methods of prevention.
Errors can occur. Urine samples are aside from being the least expensive, also the easiest to cheat with. Students can easily ask their classmates for their samples to avoid being tested positive. A student can also dilute their sample by consuming hefty amounts of fluid to lessen the concentration of their urine, which also cleans out the substances that were supposedly there. It may also occur that the needed facilities are not available immediately, and this can make dire changes to the urine samples.
Ethical issues are also being discussed. It would be no surprise that information would be leaked, considering the various revelations about politicians and unheard of crimes. Information from these tests can easily be used against the students and may subject them to the fire of the war on drugs. Extrajudicial killings are rampant, especially with the president himself encouraging people to murder every drug pusher and abuser; not once did he mention an age range of who to kill or not. Parents are simply worried for the safety and integrity of their children.
The aims of this DepEd Order offer assistance to our president’s current agenda of wiping out the drug issues and crimes in our country. However, the fact that there are still issues mean that this has not been thought through, and it would be best to re-evaluate this before actually implementing these tests.
