Presidential aspirant and Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, together with running mate Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, tested negative for illegal drugs after President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that a presidential aspirant uses cocaine.  

Lacson and Sotto, who are running for the two highest positions in the government for the 2022 elections, took the drug test at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Quezon City on Monday.

PDEA stated that urine samples collected from Lacson and Sotto “do not contain any dangerous drugs” which proved that Lacson and Sotto tested negative for illegal drugs.

Lacson said they underwent a multi-drug screening procedure, which is capable of detecting various types of illegal substances in a human body.

“What we underwent was not ordinary testing. PDEA uses a multi-drug testing kit. It can check all types of illegal drugs, encompassing holistic drug tests”, Sotto said.

“Ordinary testing only checks marijuana and shabu,” he added.

Duterte hinted that there is a presidential aspirant who uses cocaine and called him a “weak leader” during his speech before the anti-insurgency task force in Mindoro on Thursday, November 18. 

Several sectors urged public officials running in the 2022 national elections to undergo drug testing to prove that they are not the ones being referred to by Duterte. 

Presidential aspirants Senator Bong Go and labor leader Leody De Guzman have also expressed their willingness to undertake drug testing. 

Other public officials running for president have concurred and said that they are open to take drug tests before the 2022 elections, including Vice President Leni Robredo, Senator Manny Pacquiao, and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno.

Photo Credit: Facebook/PingLacsonOfficial