Palace to Robredo: Shut up if you can’t take on Duterte dare to be drug czar

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Leni Robredo should just “shut up” and stop denouncing the government’s war on drugs if she cannot take on President Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge for her to be his drug czar for six months, Malacañang said Tuesday.

“Tumahimik na lang siya…tumahimik ka kung ‘di mo kayang gawin ‘yung crinicriticize mo,” Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

(She should shut up. Shut up if you can’t accomplish what you’re criticizing.)

Duterte announced Monday he would “surrender” the power to enforce the law to Robredo after the latter said the government needs to reassess the crackdown on illegal drugs as the numbers of dead drug suspects continue to pile up.

But Robredo reportedly declined to answer Duterte’s dare, saying that she does not know if the President was being serious.

READ: Duterte dares Robredo: Lead drug war

If Robredo ultimately refused to accept Duterte’s challenge, Panelo said it belies her own remarks and shows that the Duterte drug war is not a “failure.”

“If she declines (Duterte’s challenge), it only shows that it is not true that this war on drugs is a failure and that there should be more or other measures to be undertaken,” he said.

Since taking power in 2016, Duterte has made the crackdown on illegal drugs the focal point of his administration, continuing the brutal campaign against illegal drugs which he used in Davao City when he was mayor.

Local and international human rights watchdogs have expressed their opposition to Duterte’s drug war, citing alleged violations of human rights, which the government vehemently denied.

Over 5,500 individuals have been killed in the government’s crackdown against illegal narcotics, according to data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. But human rights groups have counted that as much as 27,000 lives have been claimed by the drug war death and by unknown hitmen.

READ: Robredo: I said reassess – not stop – drug war