Stressing that the use of illegal drugs will not be tolerated among employees of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, Director General William K. Hotchkiss III has ordered the immediate removal of seven contractual workers at the Zamboanga International Airport.
The seven CAAP employees tested positive for the use of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) in random drug testing conducted on May 10 by the agency’s Office of the Flight Surgeon and Aviation Medicine.
Hotchkiss directed the termination of their contracts and ordered an investigation by CAAP’s Hearing and Adjudication Board on the regular employee who was also found to be using illegal drugs.
Hotchkiss previously ordered disciplinary action on 12 agency workers who tested positive for the use of shabu and of marijuana in random drug testing conducted by the OFSAM from January to April in all 19 of the 41 commercial airports managed by the CAAP.
He added that a memorandum he issued on March 7, 2013 encapsulates the provisions of the two laws pertaining to the campaign against illegal drugs.
Hotchkiss cited the Philippine Civil Aviation Regulation on Psychoactive Testing and Reporting to ensure that all CAAP employees do not use narcotics.
“These random drug tests are conducted by the OFSAM monthly on 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.
He emphasized that the abuse of illegal drugs causes erratic and sometimes violent behavior in a person who could be driven to harm other people or even steal to appease the narcotics addiction.
Hotchkiss ordered the setup of programs to increase employee awareness on the adverse effects of illegal drugs and for the area center managers of the CAAP-run airports to motivate their staff to lead healthy lives and encourage them to volunteer information on co-workers who might need help in breaking the habit of using drugs.
Based on data from the CAAP-OFSAM, for January 2016, 315 employees in the Mamburao, San Jose, Tacloban, Masbate, Dipolog and Laoag Airports were randomly tested for the use of illegal drugs. The test resulted in two employees at the San Jose Airport and one from Masbate Airport testing positive for shabu use and another for marijuana.
In February, out of 321 employees tested by the CAAP-OFSAM in the Daet, Legaspi, Bacolod, Ozamiz, Pagadian Airports, one (1) each from the Bacolod and the Ozamiz Airports were positive for the use of shabu.
In March, of the 211 CAAP workers from the General Santos, Iloilo Airports and the Mactan airside facility nobody was found to be using narcotics.
In April, out of 350 CAAP employees from Butuan, Tagbilaran, Surigao and Kalibo Airports who were tested for narcotics use, three (3) from Butuan and two (2) from Kalibo were found positive for shabu.
Last year, out of 1,551 employees who underwent screening for narcotics, 18 tested positive for the use of illegal drugs.