Detained Senator Leila de Lima must be “hallucinating,” Malacañang said Thursday, after the lawmaker urged President Rodrigo Duterte to discharge his powers as Chief Executive and let Vice President Leni Robredo take his place.
“De Lima must be hallucinating. Could be the result of her incarceration. I pity her. I’m praying for her health,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a text message to reporters.
This came after De Lima said that President Duterte should let Robredo take over the presidency for him to stay true to his challenge for the vice president to lead his drug war.
“Duterte has resorted anew to attacking Robredo since he “cannot admit that he miserably failed” in fulfilling his promise to eradicate illegal drugs in six months,” De Lima said.
“Duterte must first relinquish his post entirely to VP Robredo, who will then be acting president throughout the over-acting phase of Duterte’s spoiled brat persona, and not only take over law enforcement functions,” De Lima said.
The issue stemmed from Duterte’s offer to Robredo to be at the helm of his administration’s anti-narcotics campaign.
The opposition leader previously said the government should reassess the bloody campaign that has taken the lives of thousands of drug suspects.
The President even offered to put Robredo in charge of law enforcement for six months to prove that she can do better than him.
He said he will ask Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to transmit a formal letter to Robredo, informing her of his decision to let her take over law enforcement.
Robredo, however, refused to accept the offer, saying that she was not even sure if it was serious or a mere insult.
She also said she has yet to receive a formal communication from the Office of the President.
Robredo also said that President Duterte won’t have to delegate the campaign to somebody if it was successful.
“If there’s no failure, why delegate it to me? Because you will only delegate the tasks you cannot do,” she said.
