BAGUIO CITY (PIA) – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has declared 14 jails managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in the Cordillera (BJMP-CAR) as drug-free facilities for persons deprived of liberty, and drug-free workplaces.

During the 1st quarter meeting of the Regional Development Council Sectoral Committee on Development Administration and Good Governance, PDEA-CAR assistant regional director Christy E. Silvan reported that among those declared as drug-free workplaces are the Baguio City Jail Male Dormitory, the Baguio City Jail Female Dormitory; the La Trinidad District Jail Male and Female Dormitories, the La Trinidad Municipal Jail, the Buguias District Jail, the Itogon Municipal Jail, and Tuba District Jail in Benguet; the Mountain Province District Jail; the  Ifugao District Jail, and the Alfonso Lista District Jail in Ifugao; the Tabuk District Jail in Kalinga; the Luna District Jail in Apayao, and the Bucay District Jail in Abra.

The BJMP-CAR regional office was also declared drug-free.  

PDEA information officer Rosel Sarmiento explained that a drug-free workplace is an employment setting where all employees adhere to a program of policies, and activities designed to provide a safe and productive workplace, discourage alcohol and drug abuse,  encourage treatment, and the return to work of those employees with such abuse problems.

This aims to promote the establishment and institutionalization of drug-free workplace policies in all government agencies, and ensures that all public officers, both elective and appointive, are drug-free through the conduct of authorized drug testing. This is in accordance with Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. 

With drug-free workplaces, the public is assured of effective, and efficient service from the government, free from the ill-effects of drug use in the workplace, Sarmiento said. (JDP/MAWC-PIA CAR)