Committee: STEC ICARE Association
Title: Rehabilitation and Prevention for the Future
Topic: DepEd Order no.40, Series of 2017
Country: Philippines
Delegate: Aleya Oliveron
As of July 2017, there have been over 5.5 thousand casualties as Rodrigo Duterte leads the Philippine‘s war on drugs. To his praise, the part of the population comprising of drug pushers and users have surrendered, significantly decreasing the crime rate by 26% and the total drug market. In contrast with the people’s views, the president’s war on drugs does not entirely focused on the mere eradication of the entirety of drug addicts. On August 8, 2017, the Department of Education issues DepEd Order No. 40, S. 2017: Guidelines for the conduct of random drug testing in public and private secondary schools. Said D.O. will be conducted for the sake of assessing the prevalence of drug use among secondary school students. With that said, the data gathered through the tests can prove to be beneficial for the prevention and rehabilitation of affected students to avoid having more youth fall victim to drug abuse and dependency.
Title: Rehabilitation and Prevention for the Future
Topic: DepEd Order no.40, Series of 2017
Country: Philippines
Delegate: Aleya Oliveron
As of July 2017, there have been over 5.5 thousand casualties as Rodrigo Duterte leads the Philippine‘s war on drugs. To his praise, the part of the population comprising of drug pushers and users have surrendered, significantly decreasing the crime rate by 26% and the total drug market. In contrast with the people’s views, the president’s war on drugs does not entirely focused on the mere eradication of the entirety of drug addicts. On August 8, 2017, the Department of Education issues DepEd Order No. 40, S. 2017: Guidelines for the conduct of random drug testing in public and private secondary schools. Said D.O. will be conducted for the sake of assessing the prevalence of drug use among secondary school students. With that said, the data gathered through the tests can prove to be beneficial for the prevention and rehabilitation of affected students to avoid having more youth fall victim to drug abuse and dependency.
Drug
trafficking, abuse, and dependency have been issues in our country for a long
time. A staggering 92% of Manila’s barangays suffer from drug-related issues.
Our president himself has made claims about the Philippines being a
narco-state. To prevent these numbers from rising, it is best to prevent it by
doing work with the part of population that is most susceptible to drug
influence: students. D.O. no. 40 tests students to assess the prevalence of
drug use in schools and provide them with ways to fix any issues that have
arose from the use of drugs. Of course, there are going to be people that will
be against implementing this order. The sheer fact that youths must submit to
surprise drug tests are violations of several human rights such as
self-incrimination. Students may also feel that their privacy is being disrespected
as leaking of information found in tests are more likely to appear. However,
upon reading the whole paper, the D.O. explicitly shows the methods of how the
data will be gathered, and how the information will be disseminated and put
into use.
Before any
of the tests will be issued, the Department of Health will make sure to inform
the students and parents about what sort of tests and processes they will be
undertaking. Discussions about the actual test, insight on drug abuse,
addiction, dependencies, and several issues will be put to light.
Confidentiality,
being one of the most common ethical issues in the D.O., is emphasized in the
memorandum. The actual date of the test will be confidential to avoid the rise
of panic and worry among the students and parents. The Department of Health,
which will be providing the analysis, will have the results ready within 15
days. Provided that students will undergo said tests, all results will remain
confidential and will only be shared by the drug test coordinator to the
concerned student and parents. This is for positive and negative results alike.
If ever the student does test positive, none of this information will be used
against the student in court or in school; no traces of the test results will
be reflected on their academic records, and they will not be expelled.
More
guidelines have been prepared for further rehabilitation of students that test
positive. An in-depth discussion will occur with the student, parents, and
concerned drug test coordinator, where the chances of dependency and methods of
prevention will be disclosed. Students will be referred to the Department of
Social Welfare and Development or will be provided with private rehabilitation
centers if ever parents see it fit.
It is good to know that the government is looking for safer
ways to lessen and prevent crime in our country. Provided that majority of the
schools will undergo said tests, this will help the government act
more to continue preventing the increase of the population that are reliant on
drugs. It will also help the students themselves avoid their own downfall and
prevent the country’s as well through newfound awareness provided by the DepEd Order.