An additional 300 inmates at the Iwahig Corrections Facility (ICF) recently underwent voluntary drug screening as part of the Bureau of Corrections’ (BUCOR) aim to ensure no one is engaged in illegal narcotics use.
ICF spokesperson and corrections technical officer Levi Evangelista said Friday that to date, 800 PDLs have already been tested for drugs out of the 2,700 total population.
“Ipagpapatuloy namin ‘yan as long as nandyan si PHO (Provincial Health Office) na tumutulong sa amin at we hope na lahat ng PDL ay mag-undergo ng drug testing para rin syempre, si IPPF (Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm) naman ay hindi na mapagbintangan. To prove uli dahil tapos na si employees, inaantay na lang yong result,” he said.
He said that if the tests are all negative, it would prove that there are no drugs inside the prison contrary to accusations being thrown against them.
Evangelista said a PDL who will turn positive for drugs will be placed inside a disciplinary cell for further investigation to determine where his supply is coming from.
“Wala pa, hindi pa namin napag-usapan what if may nag-positive kasi hindi pa naman nako-cover lahat. Syempre ilalagay yon sa maximum cell or sa aming disciplinary cell. With regards to the case, hindi ko pa sure kung papatawan ba siya ng case,” he said.
Evangelista said that the management is hopeful that the total population would be covered by the screening by the end of the year.
“On the part of IPPF, gusto niya i-saturate lahat ng PDL as long as si PHO will assist sa mga material. Let us see, tignan natin kung umabot ng kalahati, 50 percent of the total population of IPPF,” he said.
The second batch of screening started on Tuesday and is still ongoing as of the moment, Evangelista stated.
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