Despite her removal as co-chairperson of the Interagency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs, Vice President Leni Robredo said Monday she is not giving up the fight against illegal drugs.
“To my beloved countrymen, as your vice president, my biggest responsibility lies in you,” she said.
“In the days to come, I will be giving a report to the public. I will be disclosing all that I have discovered and all of my recommendations. Rest assured, even if I was removed from my post, they can never take away my determination,” she said.
She said she is determined to stop drug-related deaths, run after those behind them and win the campaign against illegal drugs.
“If they think this [effort] will just stop there, they just don’t know. I am just about to begin,” she said.
After apologizing for believing the fake news that Robredo invited United Nations investigators to look into the government’s bloody war on drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte fired the vice president as ICAD co-chairperson.
READ: Rody fires Leni from ICAD
He said he was offended when Robredo and even Senator Francis Pangilinan taunted him to remove the vice president if he could not trust her.
Robredo, who was in Naga City, Camarines Sur for the signing of an agreement with Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc., said despite forewarnings that she should not accept the President’s offer for her to lead the anti-drug campaign, she accepted the challenge, and did not waste time to meet with agency-members of the ICAD, consult with various sectors of society, visit communities, talk to local government units and inspect rehabilitation centers.
“Immediately, there had been attacks, and endless criticisms. [They said] I was weak. That I must not meddle with police matters. That I cannot be trusted. They helped one another and unified so that I would not succeed,” she said.
“If we all have the same objective, why not just help each other? Aren’t they serious in this fight? Or have we touched someone’s interest?
“When I accepted the job, the first thing that I asked of them was if they were ready to work with me. Now, my question is, what are you afraid of?” she asked.
“Mr. President, I did not ask for this position, but still I took the work seriously. The people want a government that would truly champion the fight against illegal drugs. Remember this, our enemies are the illegal drugs and the drug lords, and not me, especially not the people themselves,” she said.
The Palace said Robredo could do whatever she pleases with the information she gathered during her 18-day stint as co-chair of ICAD.
Although the Palace never gave Robredo the time to carry out any of her proposed reforms in the government’s anti-drug campaign, the President’s spokesman said she was fired for “incompetence” and her “failure to introduce new measures she claimed she had.”
“She was weighed and found wanting,” Panelo said in Filipino.
The Palace official also dismissed as nonsense speculation that President Duterte fired Robredo over fears that she might succeed and gain headway in the 2022 presidential race.
Robredo, who was fired barely three weeks after she assumed the post, was merely “grandstanding” as she talked to foreign groups critical of the administration’s anti-drug campaign, Panelo said.
“She should have gone to the grassroots. She should have gone to the communities, talk with the people there, know their problems on drugs…When you criticize something on a particular job, you must have some ideas in your mind, otherwise you cannot be criticizing,” Panelo said in a television interview.
“When you say that’s bad, if you say that’s bad, that means you have some good ideas to substitute for that. But she never presented any program at all. She didn’t. What she did was to call—what? How’s that?” Panelo added.
Hours before his departure for South Korea, President Duterte fired Robredo “in response to the suggestion of Liberal Party president, Senator Francis Pangilinan,” the Palace said.
During her short stint in ICAD, Robredo met with the 21-member agencies of ICAD, officials from the Department of Health, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Community-Based Drug Rehab Alliance, and US Embassy officials to discuss how to improve community-based rehabilitation centers.
READ: Robredo taps US for drug war
Robredo also visited drug-infected barangays, asking for their cooperation to get rid of illegal drugs in their area.
She has previously suggested the creation of a new anti-drug campaign to replace Oplan Tokhang, which has gained notoriety for allegedly violating human rights and depriving suspects of the presumption of innocence.
Oplan Tokhang is the house-to-house “knock and plead” initiative of the police to get drug suspects to surrender.
President Duterte earlier said he could not trust Robredo after she asked for confidential drug war data and after he was informed that the she supposedly invited foreign entities to the country. Duterte, over the weekend, apologized for believing in and reacting to “fake news.”
Despite this, Duterte said he still could not trust Robredo because she was part of the political opposition.
President Duterte appointed Robredo as ICAD co-chair on Oct. 31, apparently irked by her remarks that the drug war was not working and should be reexamined.
Robredo accepted the post on Nov. 6 to lead Duterte’s flagship campaign that has killed more than 5,000 drug suspects and that has been condemned by local and foreign human rights groups.
The chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency supported the decision of the President to fire Robredo.
“PDEA respects and believes in the wisdom of the President,” said PDEA chief Aaron Aquino in a Viber message sent to reporters.
Human Rights Watch Philippines on Monday accused the President of not being “even remotely sincere” in his appointment of Robredo.
“Was his offer of involving her in finding solutions to the situation of drugs in the Philippines ever really serious? He didn’t even give Robredo the chance to show what she could do to make the campaign against drugs effective and, most important, non-violent and rights-respecting,” said HRW Asia Researcher Carlos Conde.
“By firing her on such ludicrous grounds, Duterte reveals he was never even remotely sincere and exposes his game to appoint her as a total sham,” Conde added.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers defended the President’s decision, saying Robredo’s actions were not in sync with the President.
“If you are a presidential appointee, no matter who you are, all your actions must be in-sync with the appointing power,” Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said.
“VP Leni already knew the irritants to our President yet she continued with what she described as consultations with the different international bodies. That I think showed that she is treading a different path from that of the President,” Barbers added.
Party-list Rep. Manuel Cabochan III of Magdalo said Robredo was fired three weeks after being appointed because she was actually moving in the right direction.
READ: Rody to Leni: Leak data, you're fired
“The President had to fire VP Leni because she may succeed where he failed. He had to do it because he cannot make good of his promise to resign,” said Cabochan.
“If anything, the President’s decision to fire VP Leni from ICAD just proves that the success of the war on drugs is not their concern. Rather, it is their ego that they are trying to save. The administration still refuses to admit that its approach against the drug problem has been flawed and needs to be reformed,” he added.
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay shared a similar view.
“The mistake of Vice President Leni Robredo is that she took her role as anti-drugs czar very seriously while President Rodrigo Duterte considered her appointment as a flippant joke and an off-the-cuff reaction to her criticisms on his bloody war against drugs,” Lagman said.
Allies of President Duterte in the Senate defended his decision to fire Robredo.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III noted Robredo’s appointment as ICAD co-chair is based on trust.
“Once trust is lost, the position is lost,” Sotto said.
Pangilinan said Malacañang’s explanation behind Robredo’s removal was “a desperate attempt at blaming others for the mess they themselves created.”
Akabayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros said Robredo’s dismissal was not surprising at all.
“From the very start, we knew what this administration’s intentions were. But when Vice President Leni Robredo courageously responded to the challenge of leading the campaign against illegal drugs, this administration got entangled and became a victim of its own trap,” she said.
“Now there can be no doubt that the so-called ‘invitation’ to work with the Vice President to curb the country’s drug problem was nothing but an insincere sham. It also exposed the government’s unwillingness to explore and try new approaches and alternatives in the campaign against illegal drugs,” Hontiveros said.
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