Hot air from Leni

It was former co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) panel, Vice President Leni Robredo, who, after being fired from her appointed job, had virtually threatened both the Palace and the public with her announcement of baring all about President Duterte’s drug war.

Robredo made it appear that the information she would be divulging publicly would destroy the President and bare the “truth” of his war against drugs. The yellows certainly cheered her early announcement of her forthcoming expose.

Apparently, that was all hot air from Leni and her spokesman, the voluble Barry Gutierrez, as Robredo now calls that which she gathered from the heads and members of the inter-agency, as well as what she had gathered from the US Embassy and an agency of the United Nations (UN), as not only mere information but her output by way of her recommendations for the anti-drug drive.

She failed to bare her “information,” saying she would do so after the Southeast Asian Games.

Now, with the Games coming to an end, Leni, through her spokesman, claimed that it is not the Vice President’s style to discredit anyone as she does not get back at those who discredit her.

Really? What do she and her spokesman think she was doing much earlier when she went to the UN and made scathing speeches against Duterte and his administration? Wasn’t she discrediting the President, the country and its judiciary, since Leni was making it appear that the cops who killed the victims of the anti-drug war were not being punished though any investigations as well as judicial trials? She also made it out that the Philippines is a virtual dictatorship.

It is fact that even when Robredo was a member of the Duterte Cabinet, she was discrediting him, his programs and especially his war on drugs. Gutierrez should not try to portray his principal as a Duterte victim who was kicked out of her job for no reason at all.

Evidently, for all those claims from Leni of baring all about the drug war she had collected during her short stint at ICAD, what she would be releasing would be “important” information that would improve the anti-drug campaign.

“But here she will clarify what she discovered as important information and what she thinks needs to be improved,” Gutierrez stressed. He added that Robredo’s goal is not to pull down anyone since all Leni wants is to cooperate with the government in the fight against the proliferation of illegal drugs and “all should cooperate since this illegal drug problem is something that we should work on together.”

Leni had bared a little earlier, as ICAD co-chair, what she wanted done to “improve” the ways and means being applied by the Philippine National Police, the gist of which was having community–based rehabilitation centers. This is hardly a novel plan, given the fact that the administration early on had already built, with the help of donors, rehabilitation centers.

These rehab centers were not of much help, considering that the same “drug patients” were back doing the same drug-related job they had before going to rehab.

Still, there is nothing really wrong with having more drug rehab centers that would have to be run professionally and, strictly, to get addicts off the drugs, and for the released addict to have post-supervision, perhaps with a sponsor checking on the addict and making sure he does not go back to his drug habit.

But rehab facilities can’t be all that Robredo can come up with as a solution, especially as she has virtually called for a bloodless anti-drug war. But what Leni seems to be missing out on is that there are less victims being killed although she, her yellows and even the government’s Commission on Human Rights (CHR) have been feeding the International Criminal Court (ICC) special prosecutor with so-called information on Duterte’s drug war. The local agency has even come out with a claim that it is under no obligation to let the government know what the it has been feeding the ICC prosecutor, which no doubt are exaggerated numbers of deaths in the drug war, including rapes and other crimes committed in its name.

The yellows that are so desperate to regain power and position, as well as the CHR that is anti-Duterte, are all into getting Duterte charged before the ICC. But as the Palace points out: If an ICC warrant comes, who will enforce it? Leni? The yellows? The CHR?

Forget your plots and plans, yellows. You are such losers, you won’t win. Just wait for the presidential elections in 2022 and try your luck again — and no cheating please!

“But

rehab facilities can’t be all that Robredo can come up with as a solution, especially as she has virtually called for a bloodless anti-drug war.

“What

do she and her spokesman think she was doing much earlier when she went to the UN and made scathing speeches against Duterte and his administration? Wasn’t she discrediting the President?