MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to fire Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chair of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) should she leak state secrets with foreign entities that will endanger national security.
“There’s a limit to that. I know that she’s a lawyer and she has other advisers,” President Duterte said in an interview with GMA News TV’s Balitanghali on Saturday.
“There are certain matters that should be kept with the government, that classified matters cannot be shared. Once she does that, she’s out, I would fire her. Because you jeopardized the security of the state,” he added.
Robredo earlier met with officials of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United States Embassy to discuss the country’s anti-illegal drug campaign.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that “revealing state secrets would be a violation of the Article 229 or Revelation of secrets by an officer of the Revised Penal Code.”
“She may not realize it but she could be treading dangerous grounds. It could be an overreach of the granted authority hence the reminder,” Panelo said in a statement.
“Not only is it within the President’s discretion but it is his constitutional duty not only to enforce all the laws but to ensure that all his alter egos are performing their respective functions within the scope and ambit of law,” he added.
Robredo was appointed as ICAD co-chairperson of by President Rodrigo Duterte following her remarks that the administration’s drug war as “obviously not working.”
After accepting Duterte’s offer, the Vice President has vowed to change the direction of the campaign by implementing a health-based approach and ending extrajudicial killings related to the drive./PN
