MANILA, Philippines—”Naniniwala ako na hindi pa nga siya tapos sa kapalpakan.” (I believe she’s not finished yet with her blunders.)
This was presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo’s answer to the pronouncement of Vice President Leni Robredo that she has no intention of backing out from the fight against illegal drugs despite her removal as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
“‘Yung sinasabi niya hindi pa siya tapos, naniniwala ako na hindi pa nga siya tapos sa kapalpakan. Kasi sunod-sunod na palpak ang ginagawa nya eh,” Panelo said Tuesday in an interview over state-run Radyo Pilipinas.
(If she says she is not done yet, I believe it. She is not yet over with her blunders.)
“Nagsimula pa lang siyang gumawa ng mali at marami pang mali ang gagawin nyan, bilang isang opisyal,” he added.
(She’s just getting started doing mistakes and she will continue to do a lot of them as a government official.)
President Duterte dismissed Robredo as ICAD co-chair on Sunday, 19 days since she accepted the role to take charge of the administration’s brutal war on drugs.
The President appointed Robredo to ICAD after the latter criticized his brutal war on drugs.
But Leni Robredo vowed to continue the fight and announced that she would disclose something she discovered in the course of waging her version of the war on drugs.
“In the coming days, I will give a report to the people. I will reveal what I discovered and my recommendations,” Robredo said.
“I assure you that even if I was stripped of the position, my determination to stop the killings, to make those accountable pay and to win our campaign against illegal drugs remains,” she said.
‘Malacañang unfazed’
But Panelo downplayed Robredo’s statements, even asking the opposition stalwart why she did not immediately publicize her supposed discovery.
“Kung meron siyang natuklasan na masama, dapat immediately ‘yun na ang nilabas niya kaagad. Ibig ba niyang sabihin nung andun siya sa loob ng administrasyon, kung ano man ang natuklasan niyang masama o illegal, hindi niya isisiwalat dahil nasa loob siya ng administrasyon?” he said.
“At ngayong lumabas na siya, saka lang niya ilalabas? Hindi yata maganda ang hitsura ng Bise Presidente kung ganun siya.
(She should have disclosed immediately whatever irregularity she had found in ICAD. Does this mean she would only reveal her findings now that she’s out of the administration? I think that does not speak well of her image.)
The Palace official also pointed out that Duterte should have not appointed her in the anti-drug body in the first place if the government has something to hide.
“Kung meron kang itinatago bakit mo papapasukin yung kalaban. Eh kalaban siya kasma siya sa oposisyon eh. Di ba? Yun ang common sense na tinatawag.” Panelo noted.
(If you’re hiding something, why would you invite the opposition? She’s from the opposition, right? That’s common sense.)