Short answer. If it is a private company with ten or more employees, yes. Section 47 has DOLE develop a national workplace drug-abuse prevention programme to be adopted by such companies, and the programme includes the mandatory drafting and adoption of company policies against drug use in the workplace.
What the law says
a national drug abuse prevention program in the workplace to be adopted by private companies with ten (10) or more employees
RA 9165, Section 47 — Drug-Free Workplace Policy. Read the full provision →
What the law says
the mandatory drafting and adoption of company policies against drug use in the workplace
RA 9165, Section 47 — Drug-Free Workplace Policy. Read the full provision →
A declared State policy, run through DOLE
Section 47 opens by declaring it State policy to promote drug-free workplaces using a tripartite approach — government, labour and employers together. The implementing hand is the Department of Labor and Employment, which, with the Dangerous Drugs Board's assistance, is tasked to develop, promote and implement a national drug abuse prevention program in the workplace. So the obligation on any single company sits inside a national programme; it is not something each employer is left to invent unaided. The tripartite framing also means the policy is meant to be worked out with labour and employer input, not imposed in a vacuum.
The ten-employee threshold
The programme is to be adopted by private companies with ten (10) or more employees. That headcount is the line that decides who is covered. A private firm at or above ten employees falls within the programme; a very small employer below that number is not swept in by this provision. For a growing business, the practical point is that crossing that threshold brings the workplace-policy obligation with it, so headcount is worth watching precisely because it is the trigger the statute chose.
What the programme requires
The programme is not merely aspirational. Section 47 says it shall include the mandatory drafting and adoption of company policies against drug use in the workplace, done in close consultation with DOLE, labour and employer organisations, human-resource managers and other private-sector bodies. Two words carry weight: 'mandatory' and 'adoption'. A covered company is expected not just to gesture at the issue but to actually draft and put in place a written policy, developed consultatively. It is a concrete deliverable, not a general encouragement to discourage drug use.
Where the detail lives
What Section 47 does not do is spell out, in its own text, the specific content, testing rules, or procedures a company policy must contain — those sit in the national programme and the implementing issuances that DOLE and the Board develop, not in this section. So a company that knows it is covered should look to the current DOLE guidelines for the operative requirements rather than to the bare statute. If you are unsure whether your firm meets the threshold or what your policy must contain, that is worth confirming against the up-to-date DOLE issuances with advice.