I will reveal what I have uncovered about war on drugs – Robredo
“Ano ba ang kinatatakutan ninyong malaman ko? Ano ba ang kinatatakutan ninyong malaman ng taumbayan? (What are you afraid I might learn? What are you afraid the people might learn?)”
Vice President Leni Robredo raised these questions on Monday following President Duterte’s decision to sack her from her post as co
chair of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
Robredo, who is the leader of the opposition, said Dutere appears to be hiding something in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. She then warned him that she would reveal what she discovered about the drug war.
In the coming days, I will give a report to the public. I will tell what I have uncovered and my recommendations,” she said in Naga City.
“Even if my post has been taken away, you can be assured that they cannot take away my determination,” Robredo added.
“Kung sa tingin nila matatapos ito dito, hindi nila ako kilala. Nagsisimula pa lamang ako (“If they think this would end here, they don’t know me well. I’m just getting started),” she stressed.
Do as you please
In response, Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Robredo can do whatever she pleases with the information she got when she was still ICAD co-chair.
In a text message, Panelo said that the Vice President can do whatever she wanted with the said information since all of these were supposedly handed down to her in the first place.
“She can do as she pleases. Anything that she claims she has discovered was accessed to her,” he said.
The Vice President readily accepted the position to lead the counter-narcotics body on November 6. But after almost three weeks, Duterte fired her due to lack of trust.
Panelo said Robredo was appointed to the position so she can help in the drug war but she turned out to be incompetent.
“She was precisely appointed, apart from giving her the opportunity to assist in the campaign against illegal drugs, to let her know that everything in the drug was and is transparent,” Panelo said.
“She was fired for incompetence, in addition to her failure to introduce new measures she claimed she had, as against what she claimed to be ineffective method in fighting the drug menace. Tinimbang siya ngunit kulang (She was weighed but she came up short),” he added.
Panelo added that Robredo’s removal from the ICAD stemmed from her attempt to “taunt and dare” the
President to fire her if he didn’t want her on the anti-drug body.
Robredo was given the opportunity to help in the campaign against the illegal drugs but she blew it, Panelo added.
Her political allies in the opposition said she was set up to fail from the start she accepted the post.
The former anti-drug czar said she had given it all during her short stint at ICAD. She also believed her performance was not a source of conflict.
Since she accepted her appointment, Robredo has been meeting with officials of various agencies under ICAD as well as representatives of the United States government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“I did not waste time. I immediately met with ICAD and its various agencies. I consulted different sectors.
I went to the communities. I had a meeting with the LGUs. We visited the rehab centers,” she said
“Mr. President, I didn’t ask for this position. But I took seriously the job you passed on me,” she added.
Despite these, she implied it was the administration that wasn’t ready for her and in the fight against illegal drugs.
“Noong tinanggap ko ang trabahong ito, ang una kong tinanong sa kanila ay: “Handa na ba kayo sa akin?” Ngayon ang tanong ko: Ano bang kinatatakutan ninyo? (When I accepted this job, the first question I asked them was: Are you ready for me? Now, my question is: What are you afraid of?),” she asked.
“Let us remember that the illegal drugs and the drug lords are the enemies – it is not me, not even the people,” she said. (With a report from Genalyn D. Kabiling)