Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Partylist Representative Margarita “Migs” Nograles and Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte have undergone hair follicle drug tests on Wednesday, October 23.
Both are running for the Congressional seat of Davao City 1st district in the coming 2025 midterm elections.
Duterte dared his opponent to take the hair follicle test as he had. He posted a video of a laboratory employee snipping his hair for test samples, along with a picture of his negative result released on August 21, 2024.
“Hinahamon ko ang aking katunggali sa pagka-representante ng Unang Distrito ng Davao City, na sinasabing miyembro ng mga ‘young goons’ sa Kongreso, o ‘guns’ ba iyon, na magpa-hair follicle test din,” he said. “Ang hamon na ito ay para sa ating kapakanan at para matiyak na ang mga maglilingkod sa bayan ay malinis at walang kahit anong bisyong ilegal na droga.”
(I challenge my opponent for the position of Davao City First District Representative, who is said to be a member of the “young goons” of the Congress—or was it “guns”—to take the hair follicle test too. This challenge is for our best interest and to ensure that those serving the country are clean of such vices as illegal drugs.)
Nograles responded to the dare with one of her own. She said that Duterte’s drug test is outdated, and called on him to retake it.
“I appreciate that you have posted your drug test result but this is an old test done last August,” she addressed Duterte. “For the sake of transparency and accountability to the people of Davao City, I’d like to invite you to join me for a new drug test tomorrow (October 23) at 1:30 PM at Hi Precision Laboratory in Bajada, Davao City.”
“Let’s do it at the same time and together show the people of Davao City that we are not afraid to prove ourselves and show up. Hope to see you there,” she added.
Nograles and Duterte took the drug test considered most reliable and effective, compared to urine and saliva tests. Regular drug-users cannot simply flush the substances from their bodies as the hair follicle test can detect use as far back as three months ago.
Duterte took the test in Manila however, as he did not want to go all the way back to Davao just for Nograles.
Prior to this, Vice President Sara Duterte also demanded that House of Representatives aspirants must take drug tests, believing them to be “unstable.”
