Pulong accepts Trillanes’ dare
PRESIDENTIAL son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte accepted the challenge of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for them to undergo a comprehensive drug test after the former revealed that a senator is using cocaine.
The vice mayor revealed the information as he lashed at self-proclaimed hitman Edgar Matobato who accused him of ordering the killing of Cebu-based businessman Richard King, rice smuggling, and use of illegal drugs.
Duterte, in a statement issued to the media Friday, said he would gladly undergo a drug test as he urged Trillanes and all the senators to do the same considering that other public servants are already doing it in support of the anti-illegal drugs campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte.
He added that if the rank and file could submit themselves to drug testing, the more should those elected in public office.
"Many of them, if not all, may have submitted themselves to a simple drug test before but I encourage them to undergo the more precise examinations available in Metro Manila that would not just detect illegal drugs in urine or blood but even in hair follicles," Duterte said.
Duterte suggested they undergo the drug test at a high-precision drugs test center in BGC in Taguig which, he said, would show illegal drugs in hair samples.
He said that the hair follicle drug test would trace seven major drug classes like cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine, and benzodiazepine.
Duterte earlier said that he was informed by a friend who is also a friend of a senator, that the latter have been using cocaine. But the vice mayor refused to name the senator pending the evidences he has yet to gather.
Trillanes IV was then quick to dispel Duterte's statement as he challenged the presidential son to name the senator in public. He also challenged the young Duterte to submit himself to drug test.
Duterte and the city councilors earlier underwent a drug test conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) and all of them tested negative.