By Alastair McIndoe

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: President Gloria Arroyo has ordered drug tests in all high schools in the country after appointing herself anti-drugs czar earlier this week.

The move comes amid a high-profile bribery scandal in a drugs case involving justice officials, and new data showing alarmingly low levels of prosecution for drugs-related offences over the past five years.

Both have put the spotlight on the use of illegal drugs in the Philippines, which a United Nations office says has the highest incidence in South-east Asia.

'A country awash with illegal drugs is a country compromised, its law and order institutions tainted and corrupted,' Mrs Arroyo was quoted in the local media as saying on Monday.

The drug tests will cover 9,300 public and private high schools countrywide, in which eight million students are enrolled, said the Department of Education (DoE) yesterday. Between 10 and 15 children from each school will be randomly tested.

'We want to determine the prevalence of illegal drug use among school children and then, based on the data, focus on interventions,' said DoE assistant secretary for special concerns Thelma Santos.

In a survey carried out in 287 high schools involving 8,670 randomly chosen pupils four years ago, 67 tested positive, either for a form of methamphetamine known as shabu, or marijuana.

'Drug syndicates are targeting the youth to establish a future clientele,' said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) spokesman Derrick Carreon. Pinpointing at-risk schools would enable PDEA to step up operations to catch the pushers and for the authorities to intensify the anti-drugs campaign, he said.

Health Secretary Jesli Lapus, in a television interview, said pupils who test positive will in 'all confidentiality' undergo three months of counselling.

Filipino children are taught about the dangers of illegal drugs as part of the curriculum in elementary and high schools. Despite the early warnings, drug abuse is widespread. In its 2008 World Drugs Report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that 6 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 64 used amphetamines.

Dangerous Drugs Board chief Vicente Sotto presented data reportedly showing that of the 99,754 cases involving illegal drugs filed by the PDEA between 2003 and last year, 78 per cent were unresolved at the prosecution level.

This article was first published in The Straits Times  on January 15, 2009.