Private schools’ group backs drug test for college students

An association of private schools is supporting new guidelines issued by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on the conduct of drug testing of students in all higher education institutions (HEIs) starting next academic year.

Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) legal counsel Atty. Joseph Noel Estrada, in a statement, said that that association supports the CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 18 series of 2018 issued by CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III which contains the implementing guidelines for the conduct of drug testing of students in all HEIs.

COCOPEA is considered the “unifying voice” of private education in the Philippines with more than 2,000 member institutions and is made up of five educational associations - Association of Christian Schools, Colleges, and Universities (ACSCU); Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP); Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU); Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAPSCU) and the Technical-Vocational School Associations of the Philippines (TEVSAPHIL).

Estrada said that the position of the COCOPEA is anchored on three grounds-that the CMO “shall not go beyond” the RA 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002; the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Social Justice Society vs. Dangerous Drugs Board are followed and that the constitutional guarantee of academic freedom of HEIs is recognized.

While the drug testing is mandatory for all HEIs, Estrada clarified that the “actual testing is random.”

He noted that RA 9165 only requires mandatory random drug testing in all secondary and tertiary schools.

“Under the law, while it is mandatory for all schools to implement this drug testing policy, the actual conduct of the drug testing of students must be random,” he said.