MANILA, Philippines — “Hindi isinulat ‘yan para makatulong. Isinulat lang yan para mabatikos kay Pangulong Duterte.”
(It was not written to help. It was only written to criticize President Rodrigo Duterte.)
Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said this Friday after Vice President Leni Robredo released her drug war report following her brief stint as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
Robredo said Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs was a “massive failure.”
She gave the administration a rating of 1/100 since the campaign only managed to curtail one percent of the total projected illegal drugs and drug money exchanged on the streets.
Contestable figures
But Marcos said that Robredo’s report was “nothing new” and that the figures she used were “not confirmed.”
“Unang-una kung titingnan ninyo yung report, walang bago at ang ginamit nya ay mga figures na talagang not confirmed. Matagal na nilang binabato kay Pangulong Duterte. Kwestyonable,” Marcos said in a forum hosted by the National Press Club.
(First of all, if we will look at the report, there is nothing new and the figures she used were not confirmed. They have been throwing this to President Duterte for a very long time. Questionable.)
“But the main point is, yung report na yun ay hindi report. It is a criticism again,” he added.
(But the main point is it is not a report, it is a criticism again.)
Marcos, who lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential elections, said that critics should provide alternatives when making criticisms.
“Lahat naman tayo sasabihin i-criticize, pero bigyan mo kami ng kapalit. Kung hindi mo gusto yung ginagawa, kung mali yung ginagawa, ano yung tama? Wala namang binibigay,” the former senator said.
(We all say, criticize. But give us alternatives. If you do not like what is being done, if it is wrong, then what is right? Nothing is being given.)
Robredo’s report recommended that the ICAD leadership be transferred to the Dangerous Drugs Board in order to change the anti-drug approach.
The Vice President, during her ICAD stint, also pushed for an end to Oplan Tokhang and the strengthening of community-based rehabilitation programs.
Following the release of the report, Duterte shot back at Robredo, describing her as a “colossal blunder.”
The President added that the Vice President was “talking big” but only won the 2016 elections against Marcos with a slim margin.
Duterte also rejected Robredo’s recommendations.
“I don’t know if it is a colossal disaster for the country but is a colossal disaster for her,” Marcos said.