MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has apologized to Vice President Leni Robredo for believing a “fake news” that she had invited a United Nations (UN) prosecutor to look into his administration’s war on drugs.
“If she says that’s false news, I believe her. And I am sorry because I said you only realize that it is false news when the news comes out. And you hear it and you talk about it, you react to it, that is the problem,” Duterte told reporters in an interview on Saturday.
He discovered that the information was not true upon watching a news report with Robredo directly denying the allegation.
The President has earlier warned that he will slap a human rights advocate in front of Robredo but the latter quickly clarified that she only met with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and officers of the United States Embassy.
Despite apologizing, President Duterte said that he still cannot trust Robredo, who he recently appointed as co-chair of the administration’s anti-narcotics body, since she was from the opposition.
“There can never be a trust that can be nurtured between the two of us for the simple reason that Leni Robredo is with the opposition, ako andito sa kabila,” said Duterte.
Duterte added that Robredo’s mandate as co-chair of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD) was in the executive order creating it.
“So basahin lang niya iyan, it is all there and that is where she would exercise her duties, kung meron,” he said. “Ako di pa siya nagtatrabaho nang husto, I have yet to see her (Robredo) working as an ICAD chair and there’s a product of discussion.”/PN
