2 Kalibo airport employees fired for drug abuse 

MANILA, Philippines – Two employees at the Kalibo International Airport (KIA) in Aklan have been ordered removed after testing positive for using methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General William Hotchkiss III ordered the immediate termination of the contracts of service of Jeffry Dordas and Renato Roque.

CAAP’s Office of the Flight Surgeon and Aviation Medicine (OFSAM) conducted random drug testing on 125 regular and contractual workers on April 21.

“The use of illegal drugs by any CAAP employee will not be tolerated,” Hotchkiss said in a statement on Wednesday, June 15.

He said substance abuse causes erratic and sometimes violent behavior in a person, leading him or her to hurt other people or steal from them.

Dordas and Roque were the only ones found to be using narcotics out of 125 workers assigned at the Kalibo airport who were subjected to the random drug testing.

“These random drug tests are conducted by the OFSAM monthly on our 5,900 employees in the CAAP-managed airports, specifically on those with commercial operations because we do not want the few misfits in our organization interacting freely with the public,” Hotchkiss said.

Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, as well as the Civil Service Commission’s memorandum circular 13 (series of 2010), call for a drug-free workplace, the aviation agency’s chief said.

The provisions of these two laws are cited in a memorandum he issued on March 7, 2013. 

He also cited the Philippine Civil Aviation Regulation on Psychoactive Testing and Reporting that requires drug testing on airport personnel.

From January to April this year, 17 CAAP workers tested positive for the use of shabu and marijuana during random drug testings conducted by the OFSAM. They were subjected to disciplinary action. 

In 2015, out of 1,551 employees who underwent screening for narcotics, 18 tested positive. – Rappler.com