MANILA – Malacañang has justified President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to terminate Vice President Leni Robredo from her post as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.
“This is in response to the suggestion of Liberal Party President, Senator Francis Pangilinan, to just fire the Vice President from her post. This is also in response to the taunt and dare of VP Robredo for the President to just tell her that he wants her out,” Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press conference on Sunday evening, citing President Duterte’s two reasons on dismissing Robredo after three-week appointment.
According to Panelo, the Vice President wasted her opportunity to effectively implement the drug war tactics and used such to criticized the government’s approach in combatting illegal drugs.
“The President’s designation of VP Robredo was not like any offer to perform a certain task. It was an offer to make the campaign against illegal drugs better – a chance where both this Administration and the political opposition could have unified in fighting the social ill that has destroyed the lives of many and imperilled thousands others, in addition to creating a multitude of dysfunctional families and threatening the present and the next generation to useless existence,” Panelo said.
“As always, she talked – not with her appointing authority – but right in front of the cameras asking the President on her supposed mandate,” he added.
Panelo also said that, if Robredo was really serious in addressing the cause of the drug problem, she should have gone down to the grassroots – talking to the victims, to their families, and to the communities.
“Instead, she opted to have audience with the United Nations and the United States embassy officials who remain out-of-touch from the realities of the local drug problem on the ground,” he said.
Panelo added that Duterte was frowned on Robredo’s intention to seek access to confidential law enforcement information and she also failed to present any new program that she envisioned to implement.
“In a campaign where people’s lives are at risk, a day is an eternity. The government cannot twiddle its thumb and sit idly hoping for a flash of brilliance from the Vice President,” Panelo said.
“It is time to put the issue to eternal rest and bury it in the graveyard of what could have been, as well as dismiss any obstacle that impedes the government to focus on the issue at hand,” he added./PN
