Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila De Lima took a jab at President Rodrigo Duterte anew following his move to dismiss Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
“In appointing VP Leni as ‘Anti-Drug Czar,’ and firing her two weeks after, Duterte showed us that Malacañang’s official stationery on which appointments are written is as good as toilet paper and that his signature is worth a 3-year-old’s doodle,” De Lima said in a statement.
De Lima made the remark after Duterte fired Robredo, merely 18 days since he appointed the Vice President in the ICAD post.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo claimed that Robredo wasted an opportunity and used the post “as a platform to attack the methods” undertaken by the Duterte administration.
De Lima, a staunch critic of the administration, said that by firing Robredo, Duterte was “caught in his own trap.”
“By firing VP Leni Robredo, he has admitted that he was caught in his own trap, defeated in his own challenge, and thoroughly exposed as a man without honor and whose word is as good as the next lie that comes out of his big mouth,” De Lima said.
“Sa kanyang pagsuko sa sariling hamon niya kay Robredo, tinuldukan na rin niya ang matagal nang tinatanong ng marami sa taumbayan na kung ang kanyang tapang ay tunay at may paninindigan. Sa mamamayang Pilipino, ayan na po ang sagot sa tanong ninyo,” the senator added.
(In surrendering in his own challenge for Robredo, Duterte ended the questions of the public on whether his courage is real and has integrity. To the Filipino people, there is the answer to your question.)
Further, De Lima said: “Kumurap na po ang Pangulo. Bahag ang buntot at nakataas ang dalawang kamay na nagsasabing hindi na siya lalaban; na ang kanyang tapang ay isa lamang kathang-isip na iginuhit sa ating guni-guni ng mga propagandistang bayaran.”
(The President has blinked. His two hands are raised saying he will no longer fight; that his supposed courage is only a fiction drawn by paid propagandists.)
De Lima also asked Duterte who else is afraid of Robredo aside from him, as she mentioned Chinese and local drug lords that she claimed are being protected by the ‘war on drugs,’ among others.