MANILA, Philippines — The decision to stay or just quit as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) is completely up to Vice President Leni Robredo, Malacañang said Friday.
“Just like accepting a position, resigning from it solely depends upon the person, and not with the appointing power,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
“If one is not comfortable with it, or cannot stand the heat in the kitchen, the honorable thing to do is to leave the post quietly,” he added.
Panelo made the remark after Robredo said President Rodrigo Duterte should just tell her directly if he does not want her to remain an ICAD co-chair supposedly due to distrust.
The Vice President was reacting to Duterte’s statement late Tuesday when he said he does not trust Robredo with classified information related to his government’s brutal war on drugs, calling her a “scatterbrain” with “kneejerk” impulses.
Duterte’s mouthpiece then pointed out that “it may not be civil nor ethical” for Robredo to dare the President by asking him to tell her that he does not want her for the job she was appointed to.”Such taunting and daring only make it appear that [Duterte] owes her for appointing her as anti-illegal drug czar. It is the other way around,” Panelo said.
“Without her knowing it, she may be displaying her lack of care about the work assigned to her, or she may be showing disrespect to the President,” he added.
Panelo stressed that if Robredo is “smarting” from Duterte’s remarks, “she has only herself to blame” as she went “full steam in consulting or inviting foreign institutions and personalities, some of whom have already prejudged the war on drugs as a violation of human rights and crime against humanity” immediately after her appointment.
“In addition, she demanded full access to confidential matters that involve state security. Those red flags did not inspire confidence on her person, which the Chief Executive could not just brush off,” he added.