Robredo could be ‘voice’ of PH drug war to int’l community—DILG exec

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo could be a “good mouthpiece” of the government’s efforts on the drug war to the international community as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), an official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Thursday.

Undersecretary Ricojudge Janvier Echiverri, of the External and Legislative Affairs of the DILG that is a member-agency of ICAD, said Robredo’s appointment to the committee will allow a “more objective point of view in telling the international media of what is really happening.”

READ: Robredo accepts Duterte’s drug czar post appointment

He said the DILG, for instance, is implementing the policy of former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, the Vice President’s late husband, in the coordination between local government units and the Church in the community-based drug rehabilitation program of the government.

“These are matters which I think she should know so that we will also educate our neighboring countries of what is really happening and she would be a very good mouthpiece at that, telling them actually what is happening,” Echiverri said in a press conference after a meeting of the advocacy cluster of ICAD.

He added that the DILG welcomes Robredo to the committee even if she is a member of the political opposition. He said ICAD is not hiding anything anyway.

“Ang kagandahan dito, ang positive dito [The good and positive part here is], Vice President Leni can see for herself what is the truth behind everything. And hopefully makita ng international media and the local media [the international and local media will see] that what we are doing is not sugar-coated,” she said.

He said other parties will be able to have the “right information without any distrust” since it will come from someone not from the Duterte administration but from an opposition figure. /jpv