President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, 18 days since she assumed the post.
READ: Rody to Leni: Leak data, you're fired
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed the firing of Robredo in a text message to Palace reporters, after which presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo also issued a statement on the “termination of services” of the Vice President.
“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,” Panelo said.
Panelo said the President’s decision to appoint Robredo to ICAD was “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 imperiled thousands others.”
“Unfortunately, she wasted such opportunity and used the same as a platform to attack the methods undertaken by this administration. Such tack was even motivated by hubris to prove their past arguments against the anti-illegal drug operations were correct. It at once crumbled as her request for police data validated the falsity of their arguments that the extrajudicial killings are state-sponsored,” the Palace official said.
Panelo said the functions of ICAD are spelled out in Executive Order No. 15, and Robredo only had to seek an audience with the President if she wanted a clarification on the scope and limits of her task.
“As always, she talked—not with her appointing authority—but right in front of the cameras asking the President on her supposed mandate,” he said.
In a radio program Sunday morning, however, Robredo said she sent a letter to President Duterte seeking a clarification as to the extent of her mandate Tuesday last week but has yet to receive a reply.
“Many were saying I am exceeding my mandate. I do not wish to be accused of encroaching on something that is not my assignment. So I wrote the President, and I have yet to receive a reply. I am just waiting for his reply,” Robredo said.
She said this was the reason why when she met with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director-General Aaron Aquino on Wednesday, she declined his offer to go through the list of high-value targets in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
Panelo said Robredo’s decision to talk with representatives from the United Nations and the United States did not sit well with the President.
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“If VP Robredo is 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.
“The vice president resorted to unduly baiting international attention on the matter, particularly from persons or entities that know little or none at all about our situation, other than their own bias or unsubstantiated prejudgment,” Panelo added.
Panelo accused Robredo of politicizing the drug war and “detrimentally undermining” government efforts to end the illegal narcotics trade.
“The intention of the vice president to seek access to confidential law enforcement information can not be given the benefit of the doubt as being free from malice or manipulation,” he said.
“The President has been more than patient enough, giving the vice president adequate opportunity to discuss possible courses of action with him. More than two weeks have passed since the vice president accepted her designation as ICAD-chairperson but she has not presented 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 can not twiddle its thumb and sit idly hoping for a flash of brilliance from the vice president,” Panelo added.
The decision to fire Robredo came a day after Duterte apologized to her for believing in “fake news” that she invited UN probers to look into his drug war even as he insisted there can be no trust between them since they belong to opposing political parties.
“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 said in a Saturday interview in Davao City.
The President previously said he would no longer appoint Robredo as a Cabinet member for committing “missteps” including reaching out to foreign entities critical of his drug war, calling her a “scatterbrain” with “knee-jerk” impulses.
Duterte even threatened to slap foreign human rights advocate Phelim Kine, whom he thought was a UN official, in front of Robredo.
The President, however, maintained that he cannot trust Robredo since she belongs to 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, and I belong to the other side,” he said.
“There might be things that we might discuss in the Cabinet that is only good for the people of the same persuasion,” he added.
Duterte appointed Robredo as ICAD co-chair on Oct. 31, apparently irked by her remarks that the drug war should be reexamined. Robredo accepted the post on Nov. 6.
READ: Robredo taps US for drug war
READ: Leni turns to UN for ‘lessons’
