Following a high-profile drug scandal, the Philippine government has ordered all college and university professors to submit to random drug testing, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

The Commission on Higher Education, which issued the edict on Monday, said that any faculty members caught using illicit drugs would be barred from teaching unless they agreed to enter a drug-rehabilitation program. The order did not say what would happen to a professor who refused to take a drug test.

The announcement came on the heels of an earlier order subjecting all high-school and college students to drug testing. Students testing positive will also be required to undergo counseling in order to stay in school.

The government is eager to be seen as tough on drugs after the families of several students caught dealing drugs tried to bribe prosecutors to drop all charges. The arrested students belong to some of the Philippines’ richest and most powerful families.

Although questions have been raised about the constitutionality of random drug testing, the government insists that the policy is is not a drug-prosecution effort but a drug-awareness program. According to an earlier announcement, the results of the tests will be kept confidential and will not be used to prosecute users.

But paying for drug tests for some 2.5 million college students and faculty members will be a challenge, an official at the Commission on Higher Education conceded. The money allocated is enough so that only 15 students from each college and university, on average, will be tested. —Martha Ann Overland