Duterte says Robredo was just grandstanding as ICAD co-chair
MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo was “just grandstanding” in her co-chairmanship of the government’s anti-drug body, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo quoted President Rodrigo Duterte as saying.
Duterte on Sunday fired Robredo as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
“Let me quote the President, the President last night said to me ‘She was just grandstanding’,” Panelo said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel on Monday.
“The president described VP Leni with so many adjectives, it’s only one of them,” he added.
Panelo said there was no initiative from Robredo to meet or seek an audience with the President after he appointed her.
“The first thing that she should’ve done, on day one, was to seek an audience with the President. She was asking about the scope of her authority but as the President correctly said, the scope of her authority is outlined in the executive order creating ICAD,” he said.
“As I’ve been suggesting to her during my press briefings, seek an audience with the President, you’re already an appointee of the president and it’s not the President going to you. It’s the appointee going to the appointing power. But she never did, she only did that after the President has already made some remarks,” he added.
The Palace official also said Robredo should’ve “gone to the grassroots” to assess the country’s illegal drug problem.
“She should’ve gone to the communities, talked with the people there, know the problems on drugs,” he said.
“Because when you criticize someone on a particular job, you must have some ideas in your mind otherwise you cannot be criticizing, when you say that’s bad’ if you say that’s bad that means here are some good ideas to substitute for that but she never presented any program at all’,” he added.
Robredo has met with the members of ICAD as well as anti-drug representatives from the United States and United Nations after her appointment to discuss possible cooperation and moves to address the drug problem in the Philippines.
She had also held a meeting with community-based rehabilitation advocates.
Robredo earlier visited a community in Navotas City, a hotspot of police anti-drug operations and drug reformists in Dinalupihan, Bataan.
But according to Panelo, Robredo “did that only two weeks after she was in the job.”
“The first day of the Vice President, what she should’ve done since she was asking questions relative to the scope of her authority, she should’ve sought an audience with the president,” he said.
“Number two, she should’ve presented a program because according to her, the program against illegal drugs was a failure…then she said it’s ineffective so when you say that, that means you have many ideas in your mind you should have laid that on the table with the President,” he added.
