Palace: Nothing new with Robredo’s drug war report

MANILA, Philippines—There’s nothing new with Vice President Leni Robredo’s report during her brief stint at the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), Malacañang said Monday, calling the opposition stalwart’s findings a “dud.”

“When she was threatening [to release] this report, she implied na meron siyang nadiskubreng irregularidad na parang bombang sasabog (that there are irregularities that will explode). It’s a dud, wala naman siyang sinabing bago (there’s nothing new with what she said),” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

The Palace spokesman likewise claimed that Robredo is just trying to be relevant.

In her report, Robredo said the government’s drug war is a “failure” as it only hardly scratched the surface of the drug menace despite all the money and resources given by the Duterte administration.

Citing government data, the Vice President said the shabu supply and drug money were only reduced by 1 percent in the last three years.

BREAKING: Duterte’s drug war barely nicked surface of society’s menace – Robredo

But Panelo refuted this, claiming that the campaign has resulted in declaring many villages across the country as “drug-free” and in the dismantling of numerous illegal drug laboratories.

“Marami nang drug-free barangays. Paano mo masasabing failure? Hindi totally eradicated kasi maraming pumapasok, pero nahuhuli pa rin natin. Kaya nga hindi tumitigil si Presidente.

(There are many drug-free barangays already. How can you say it is a failure? It’s not totally eradicated because drug supply continue to come in, but we’re still able to seize them. The President is not stopping.)

Nonetheless, the Palace official said he will let the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and other agencies in the ICAD to study and respond to Robredo’s recommendations.

Robredo was set to deliver her report early December 2019, but gave way for the country’s hosting of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. She later decided to defer releasing the report as her office chose to prioritize delivering relief goods to typhoon victims in Bicol and quake victims in Mindanao.