‘Shamelessly cocky’

Panelo on Aquino’s remark vs admin’s drug war

CHIEF Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Wednesday lashed back at former President Benigno Aquino III after noting the current administration’s failure to reduce the number of individuals connected to drug proliferation.

In a statement, Panelo merely dismissed Aquino’s remark against the antidrug war waged by President Rodrigo Duterte as “shamelessly cocky and outrageous chutzpah.”

Panelo also lambasted Aquino for his “incompetence” to end the proliferation of illicit drug trade in the country during his stint as president.

“Former President Noynoy Aquino’s comment on President Duterte’s war on drugs as being ineffective is shamelessly cocky and an outrageous chutzpah,” he said.

“The criticism comes from someone under whose watch the drug menace proliferated in unsurpassed magnitude due to the previous administration’s either incompetence in curbing it or criminal neglect in stopping its spread,” he added.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Aquino said that it seemed like “nothing happened” when Duterte launched his all-out war against the drug personalities, citing no difference on the figures of people linked to narcotics trade recorded in 2015 and 2016.

Aquino said that in 2015, around 1.8 million had reportedly been involved in drug proliferation. He added that the number of drug personalities remained 1.8 million in 2016, the year when Duterte already assumed office.

Panelo said it was only Duterte who gave his "full dedication" to stamp out illegal drugs “to save a generation from addiction and cleanse the country from its lethal consequences.”

“It has to take a President unschooled in refined hypocrisy and unscarred in corruption to lay the foundation for its dismantling to save a generation from addiction and cleanse the country from its lethal consequences,” Panelo said.

Duterte’s war on illegal drugs has earned criticisms following the thousands of drug-related deaths recorded in his first year in office.

Despite controversy, Malacañang has touted the administration’s achievement in its fight against narcotics trade. SunStar Philippines