Candidates for national and local offices in the 2010 elections are no longer required to undergo mandatory drug test as provided for under Republic Act No. 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Chairman Jose A.R. Melo of the Commission on Elections said Thursday that Section 36 (g) of RA 9165 requiring mandatory drug test for candidates had been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, whose decision had become final and executory.

He said the Comelec en banc has passed Resolution No. 09-0554 which noted that the SC decision had become final. It was signed by Melo and Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle, Armando Velasco, and Elias Yusoph.

Resolution No. 09-0554 directed the poll body’s executive director for operation Jose Tolentino Jr., deputy executive director for operations Bartolome Sino Cruz, law department director Ferdinand Rafanan, and education and information director James Jimenez to implement the SC decision.

In a precedent-setting decision issued last year, the SC declared constitutional provisions in the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 that require high school and college students, and officers and employees in public and private offices to undergo a mandatory, random, and other bets in its national convention next month.

But as far as Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri is concerned, Teodoro should be given a free hand in selecting his running mate.

Zubiri, coalition vice president for Mindanao, said his personal view is to give Teodoro the privilege of choosing his running mate is similar to the recent selection by Sen. Benigno Simeon “Noynoy’’ Aquino (Liberal Party) of Sen. Manuel “Mar’’ A. Roxas II, LP president, as his running mate.

Possible administration contenders for the vice presidency are Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto, her husband former Senator Ralph Recto, Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte, and even Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando, said Bello.

But while former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay said that Fernando is now willing to become Teodoro’s running mate, the MMDA chairman immediately belied this.

“There are many possibilities. Until the national convention of Lakas-Kampi-CMD party is made, everything is still up in the air,” he said in a news conference in the Palace.

“This is anybody’s game,” he said, adding many administration members are still divided on their choice for Teodoro’s running mate.

Bello, also deputy secretary general of Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, said the national executive committee reached a “consensus” to endorse Teodoro but only expressed “preference” for Puno.

He said Puno, the only one who expressed desire to run for vice president next year, was “not in the consensus” reached by the national executive committee led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita last week.

In the voting between Teodoro and Fernando as presidential candidate by the party executive committee last week, Bello revealed that some members of the committee placed Puno’s name as vice president on the ballot.“There was a perception that it was already Puno but there is no decision yet,” he said.

“The field of choices is still very much open although you have to consider there is a consensus for Secretary Teodoro,” he said. “The possibility of changing Teodoro as presidential candidate is remote,” he added.

At the Usaping Balita News Forum in Quezon City, Pichay disclosed that Fernando told him he is now willing to join the vice presidential fray.

But Fernando denied talking to Pichay after the party executive committee meeting that selected Teodoro as standard-bearer.

“After the (Edsa) Shangri-La Plaza event, we never talked, we never met. Hindi ko alam ‘yan,” said Fernando.

Meantime, in the event the Commission on Elections rejects the registration and accreditation of Lakas-Kampi-CMD party as dominant political party, Bello said the two political parties would go back to individual identities and still support the same set of national and local candidates.(With reports from Ben R. Rosario and Anna Liza T. Villas)