Robredo holds first meeting as drug czar
VICE President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo confirmed on Thursday that she would have her first meeting with the members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) on Friday afternoon. She said she and her cochairman, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino, will discuss the anti-illegal drugs campaign. Officials of government agencies under the ICAD were invited to the meeting. Malacañang confirmed that the vice president has called her first antidrug meeting.
“Ibigsabihin (It means) she’s dedicated to assume her new job,” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters in a chance interview.
The ICAD was created by President Rodrigo Duterte through Executive Order 15 and is composed of 21 member agencies. Among its functions is to ensure the effective conduct of all anti-illegal drug operations and arrest of high-value drug
personalities including street-level peddlers and users.
Meanwhile, the vice president reiterated that her acceptance of the ICAD post does not mean that she is eyeing the presidency.
“Definitely not at all. If I have been thinking of running in 2022, I would not accept [ this post], because it is too much of a risk,” she said in English and Filipino.
With her acceptance of the anti-drug post, Robredo should now be a partner, not a critic, of the campaign on illegal drugs, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said.
“You should not be a critic anymore when you join an organization, you should consider yourself as a partner, not a critic,” DILG spokesman and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in a television interview.
Malaya said that since Robredo accepted her post as the co-chairman of ICAD, she should work “positively” with all the members of the agency.
On Thursday, the vice president trekked through rough terrain for three hours to reach Sitio Macantog in Tanay, Rizal where she led the turnover of solar kits. The community, composed of 60 families, currently has no source of electricity.
Robredo, a staunch critic of the drug war, accepted on Wednesday the administration’s offer to be the ICAD co-chairman with an aim of putting an end to extrajudicial killings.
Robredo said she accepted Duterte’s offer because she thought it was an opportunity for her to end the killings and hold those behind them accountable.
Based on the data of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, from July 2016 to September 2019, 18,712 villages in the country are still plagued by illegal drugs.
The region with the highest number of drug-affected villages are the National Capital Region with 72.7 percent, followed by Region 7 ( Central Visayas) at 72.4 percent and Region 5 (Bicol Region) at 68.9 percent, Central Luzon at 63.6 percent, and Region 4-A at 55.7 percent.