This November 2021 file photo shows then Marcos lawyer Vic Rodriguez presenting the drug test results of presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to media.

MANILA — St. Luke's Medical Center's Drug Testing Laboratory stood by the past drug test of then-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos, Jr that was supposedly done in less than three minutes.

Dr. Cecilia Fernandez Lim, head of the lab, told senators at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs that drug test kits really can produce results that quickly. 

"'Yung two minutes and 54 seconds po, kaya po talaga ng drug testing kit. Mabilis pong lumabas 'yung resulta," said Lim. "'Yung mga sinasabi po nilang five minutes, 'yun po 'yung maximum time na ia-allow namin na lumabas 'yung line ng drug test."

"'Pag lumabas po 'yung linya, 'di na ho mawawala 'yun. Negative na kayo. Pero 'yung naghihintay kayo na mag-appear 'yung linya, hanggang five minutes po 'yung maximum.

Drug-testing facilities are subject to accreditation by the Department of Health and are connected to a centralized Integrated Drug Test Operations Management Information System.

Patients who test positive in a rapid — or screening — drug test may be subject to a more thorough confirmatory drug test.

'Drug tests don't usually screen for cocaine'

Geresza Reyes, the drug analyst on the drug test that Marcos took in 2021, said he tested negative for cocaine.

It was also found during the hearing that while patients can opt to have their sample tested for cocaine, it is not among the substances that are usually tested for.

Secretary Catalino Cuy of the Dangerous Drugs Board explained they really just test for marijuana and shabu because these are the most commonly abused.

Cuy acknowledged that cocaine might not be detected in typical tests.

"Kung ang gubyerno namimili kung anong droga ang ite-test, lalo naman siguro kung yung indibidwal na magpapa-test?" Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero said during the hearing. 

(If the government can choose what drugs to test for, how much more a private individual taking a drug test?)

Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, committee chair, acknowledged that the findings showed that Marcos tested negative for illegal drugs.

Inquiry into 'PDEA leaks' 

The hearings, presided over by Dela Rosa, have focused on allegedly leaked Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency documents that allege that Marcos was among alleged drug users the agency was keeping an eye on.

PDEA has already gone on the record to say that Marcos has never been on its "narco-list", a tally of alleged drug users that was made public several times during the Duterte administration.

Government officials who were named in the list denied the allegations, with former Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso III successfully suing to have his name stricken from it.

READ: CA deals Duterte gov't another loss, orders solon's name stricken off narco-list

Marcos — who submitted the test results to PDEA, Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation — said in November 2021 that he took the drug test in response to comments by then President Rodrigo Duterte hinting at a candidate who uses cocaine. 

Marcos said then that while "I really don't feel that I am the one being alluded to" by Duterte, he believed it was his "inherent duty as an aspiring public official to assure my fellow Filipinos that I am against illegal drugs."

READ: Marcos says he took drug test after Duterte cocaine blind item

Duterte, who has been attending political rallies critical of Marcos and his policies in the West Philippine Sea, has revived the comments and has accused the President of being an addict.

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