Narcos’ best bet

“Theory of a poisoned chalice is self-perpetrating since it would only be possible if Robredo utterly fails by showing that she is incapable of handling a tough campaign.

“With the post of being in charge of the anti-narcotics campaign, Robredo’s failure would be her own undoing.

The yellow mob and the other opportunistic groups disenfranchised by President Rody Duterte are intent on capitalizing on the new role of Leni Robredo to catapult themselves back to power.

They now paint her as a willing martyr for the sake of drug suspects being killed in the war on drugs.

On the pain of being called the saint of junkies, Robredo said in her patented nonsense, “I have no plans to have anybody killed since that is outside the bounds of the rule of law.”

Her followers consider President Rody Duterte’s anti-drug czarina appointment of her as a poisoned chalice and she is being set up to fail, and that it has the ultimate goal of humiliating her since she is among the “few remaining rivals to challenge his popular autocracy ahead of the 2022 elections.”

With the post of being in charge of the anti-narcotics campaign, Robredo’s failure would be her own undoing.

The whole government machinery is at her disposal to make whatever program she has in mind to implement a different approach on the campaign.

If she does good, then it frees Rody of one of his biggest concerns and would allow him to focus on further strengthening the economy.

The latest figure showed that as a result of a determined push for fiscal reforms coupled with aggressive government spending the economy posted a 6.2 percent growth in the third quarter, which is second to Vietnam’s over 7 percent growth as the strongest expansion in the region.

Robredo taking to heart the advice of her backers, avoided the first Cabinet meeting where she was expected to attend after accepting Rody’s appointment.

Instead, she set out to announce to media the convening of the Interagency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD).

Initially, all the steps that are in Robredo’s agenda are meant to strike at Rody’s determined campaign instead of complementing it.

Robredo said abusive police should be stopped and the United Nations, and presumably the International Criminal Court and other would be fact-finders, be allowed to conduct its investigation into allegations of systematic executions and coverups by police.

The influx of foreign groups and personalities who have been salivating at the chance of confronting Rody, such as Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, would be a likely source of friction between Robredo and Rody.

The likely scenario would have the foreign probers being invited by Robredo to conduct their missions, but the Department of Foreign Affairs will not allow their entry.

Rody earlier handed out the conditions of a debate in that the rights experts would allow a public debate on their findings, that Mr. Duterte is allowed questions and that they should take an oath for the conduct of the investigations on the war on drugs.

Although the conditions are simple, none of those asking to investigate were willing to accede, thus pushing Rody to be resolute about not letting them in.

Robredo appears bent on creating an international spectacle in her new post after being left in the lurch for the past three years and focusing herself on taking potshots at Rody.

The theory of a poisoned chalice is selfperpetrating since it would only be possible if Robredo utterly fails by showing that she is incapable of handling a tough campaign after making a lot of noises about the war on drugs prior to her appointment.

“We see a very strong, very popular leader who is trying to take advantage of the popularity by trying to stifle the opposition, and trying to weaken the institutions,” Robredo said shortly before taking on Rody’s offer.

“There are very, very few of us that are speaking out,” she added.

Robredo definitely can’t fight drugs with rhetoric fed by the yellow mob around her, and she has all of the almost three years to prove that her methods would be more effective than those taken by Rody.

It would be easy to deduce that even the narcotics syndicates which are reeling under the war on drugs would lend a hand to ensure her success.