Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo and Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER file photos
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo is again reduced to “groping with a blind vision” following her removal as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), Malacañang said Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo issued the statement after Robredo, in an apparent swipe at the Duterte administration, said before the beneficiaries of her Angat Buhay program’s fellowship project that true leaders perform well even if they work under an “uninspiring” boss.
President Rodrigo Duterte fired Robredo from the anti-drug body on Sunday, less than 20 days since she accepted the chief executive’s appointment.
In appointing her as a co-chair of ICAD, Panelo said Duterte gave the opposition stalwart a “lamp” after staying in the “tunnel of darkness where she strayed aimlessly after a 100 percent rejection of her endorsed Otso Diretso.”
Panelo, however, claimed that the Vice President “carelessly broke it and she is (now) back to where she was, groping with a blind vision.”
“Despite her non-performance and obstructionist perorations against the President, the latter has performed exceedingly well, and the Filipino people have stamped with a very good satisfaction rating his incomparable performance in the last three years,” the Palace official claimed.
“In contrast, the rambunctious critic has consistently rated very low in the surveys,” he added.
Panelo also said that Robredo’s tirades against the government are “unsurprising” following her “unceremonious but deserved firing.”
“There is no greater fury than a woman scorned. There is a Spanish word that aptly describes her fall from grace: Merece (Deserves),” he said.
Earlier, the Vice President vowed to continue the fight against drugs despite her removal from ICAD 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.