"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Police it's time to take your random illegal drug test. Now piss in the cup."
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| http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/08/23/1731621/police-do-house-house-drug-testing-no-law-allows-it |
What would you do if a group of policemen showed up at your doorstep and asked you to pee into a plastic cup for an on-the-spot drug test that could reveal whether or not you had taken shabu or marijuana in the last seven days?
That is the question residents of Lupang Pangako in Barangay Payatas have been grappling with since June when groups of policemen started going house-to-house, armed with do-it-yourself drug testing kits that show, within seconds, that a person is either positive or negative for the use of those banned substances.
Officials call it a “massive drug clearing operation,” with police conducting surveys of occupants of all houses, mapping the village, and then showing up unannounced and making people take drugs tests or be called “uncooperative” if they say no.
It is the approach local leaders prefer, because it does not involve killing and the barangay is taking an active part in it, with support from the police.
Pretty messed up right? Cops going door to door making people pee in a cup to see if they have been using drugs instead of simply killing suspects point blank. But what if they test positive?
And it's not just suspected drug users being tested. It's everyone they live with as well.
“When found positive, a person’s name is placed on a watch list,” said Barangay Kagawad Alejandro Adan, chairman of the barangay’s peace and order committee.
Watch list? Sure they didn't mean kill list? The suspects are already on a watch list anyway. That's why the cops are at the door conducting an illegal drug test.
The policemen explained that the test covered those on their list as well as relatives who might be home when the police come visiting.
It's also illegal. The PNP has no authority be doing these tests.
Actually, Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Acts also specifies that drug tests must be done by “government forensic laboratories or by any of the drug testing laboratories accredited and monitored by the DOH to safeguard the quality of test results.”
Besides, the law lists only those who should be subjected to drug tests:
• applicants for drivers’ licenses• applicants for firearms licenses• high school and college students• officers and employees of public and private offices• members of the police, military and other law enforcement agencies• those charged with crimes whose penalties are more than six years• and all candidates for public office, whether appointed or elected
The law says nothing about policemen conducting community drug tests.
But who cares about the law? When did anyone care about the law in the Philippines? The law is rarely enforced in the Philippines unless it means reaping huge fines or bribes.
Police going door to door taking drug tests is like something straight out of a dystopian sci-fi film like Gattaca. This is something that would never ever happen in the West. It is unthinkable. Literally the cops in the West would never even think of going door to door to do drug tests of suspected users and their families. The Philippines needs to realise that being first world means more than just economics. Unless the philosophies of individual rights such as the right to be secure from unlawful searches and seizures can be embraced the Philippines will remain backwards and stuck in the third world.
Police doing door to door drug testing is beyond a Philippine fail.
It is a Philippine nightmare!
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