Vice President Leni Robredo said it is well within the right of President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, to run as substitute bets for national posts in the 2022 elections.
Their decisions, however, will not distract her from her goal of winning the presidency next year, Robredo said.
“We expected that a Duterte will run either for president or vice president. So, because it is expected, it does not affect us in any way. It is their right [to seek public office],” Robredo said in an interview during her visit to calamansi farmers in Nueva Ecija.
“It is their right to decide for themselves. As for our team, we soldier on. We are focused on our activities, thanking our supporters, and we won’t let ourselves get caught up with what is happening with our opponents,” she added.
On Sunday, Robredo took a dig at the Duterte administration, saying drug lords continue to operate with impunity despite the bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
She made the statement as her critics predicted she would fail to solve the country’s drug problem should she be elected as president.
Only small-time drug pushers were intimidated under the government’s war on drugs, she added.
“That would be easy to tell since our society looks down at women as weak,” she said.
“But this is my question. The number one priority of this administration is the drug war, and the President is a man. But were the drug lords afraid of them? Perhaps, the small-time pushers are the ones afraid because authorities run after them,” Robredo added.
As a former co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, she said despite the numerous drug-related deaths, the government’s anti-narcotics campaign was still a failure.
Should she become the next President, she said she would eliminate corruption at ports to be able to go after big-time drug operators.
