Kaban ni D_BystandeR: MAAYONG PANAG-INGNAN, SA ITAAS MAGIKAN

In a recent drug testing conducted and aimed on all City Hall employees as required by a recently passed city council resolution, Mayor Mike Rama begs off. He said, "I will be upset if we go through all the 5000 employees in City Hall and discover only one or five are positive. It would mean we're incompetent in surveillance. It is not strategic, it's not intelligent," Rama said in his regular press conference. That is a lawful order mandated by the City Council and nobody, I believe, can claim any exemption just because he is a City Mayor.

Why, does he think he is "above the law?" So what if only one or five are found positive? Rama initially said he would take the drug test right away. But when he saw Alice Utlang (with whom he had an "unpleasant confrontation" awhile back), who heads the City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP), he said he wants to see the results first. "Let me see the results first. If it doesn't make any sense, then stop," he told Utlang. Utlang said they'll continue with the rest of the City Hall employees after the elected officials are finished with the  tests. She said those who tested positive will undergo due process, counselling and monitoring. So there's no problem with Mayor Mike even if he is found positive for drugs for he will not be booted out of his chair in the City Hall. He will still be afforded all the respect due to him as a City Mayor. Councilor Alvin Dizon said the city's elected officials should also undergo the test to "set an example."