The Philippines wants mandatory drug test for incoming college admissions from next year as a part of President Duterte's drug battle, an education official said on Friday.
Julito Vitriolo, the executive director of the Commission on Higher Education said the government seeks to make drug testing a requirement for all incoming college students.
"This was born out of the president's call to make campuses drug-free, because we see the pervasive effects of drug use," Vitriolo told Reuters.
"What's important is for students not to use drugs. It will be a deterrent if they want to continue their studies," he added.
He also said that people who would be tested positive could go through rehabilitation before they are allowed to get admission to college.
Monico Jacob, president of STI Education Systems Holdings Inc, referred to the compulsory tests and said, "It is something that we should be doing because the drug menace is real".
STI has performed compulsory drug tests for the past five years. The institution has more than 103,000 students in 2016.
Almost 2400 suspected drug peddlers and users have already lost their lives in extrajudicial killings since Duterte came to the power after winning the May election by a landslide on a promise to wipe out drugs and dealers.
Although this step has gained popular support in the Southeast Asian nation but has alarmed the United Nations and the United States, which is a close ally of Philippines' capital Manila.
