Some 506 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Iwahig Corrections Facility (ICF) voluntarily submitted themselves to a drug screening on Thursday to erase doubts they are using illegal narcotics.
They compose the first batch of PDLs who underwent the drug screening that was conducted by the ICF in close cooperation with the Palawan Provincial Health Office (PHO), said corrections technical officer II Levi Evangelista to Palawan News.
The figure is out of the ICF’s 2,784 total population of PDLs, he said.
“This move by IPPF superintendent (Geraldo Aro) to have this drug testing will prove to the public na walang gumagamit sa ating mga PDL ng ipinagbabawal na gamot,” he said.
Evangelista said the PDLs came from the minimum security of the central colony.
He said this is the first drug screening conducted for the PDLs to clear the name of Iwahig from reports linking it to drugs.
“Ito ay isang hakbang upang malinis ang pangalan ng Iwahig na napabalita noon na talamak ang droga kung kaya’t minabuti ng pamunuan after ma-drug test ang mga empleyado ay ang mga PDL naman,” he said.
Evangelista said it depends on the PHO personne if they can screen all remaining of the 2,784 total population after September 4, there first drug testing activity.
He said that the PHO initially screened the PDLs committed inside the central colony. To follow are the inmates in the subcolonies of Sta. Lucia, Inagawan, and Montible.
Meanwhile, the results of the conducted drug test with the employees of the IPPF has not yet been released by the PHO.
