Panelo hits Aquino for ‘shamelessly cocky’ remark on drug war

Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo. NESTOR CORRALES/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Wednesday blasted former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino after the latter said that it seems like nothing happened in the Duterte administration’s war against drugs.

Panelo dubbed Aquino’s statement as “outrageous chutzpah” and pointed out the previous administration’s incompetence on curbing drug operations in the country.

“P-Noy’s comment on the President Duterte’s war on drugs as being ineffective is shamelessly cocky and an outrageous chutzpah,” Panelo said in a statement.

READ: With drug war questioned, Palace showers Aquino with figures

“The criticism comes from someone under whose watch the drug menace proliferated in unsurpassed magnitude due to the previous administration’s either gross incompetence in curbing it or criminal neglect in stopping its spread,” he added.

Panelo was reacting to Aquino’s statement on Tuesday that statistics showed there were 1.8 million drug users in the Philippines during his term in 2015, which remained the same at the end of 2016.

“It has to take a President unschooled in refined hypocrisy and unscarred in corruption to lay the foundation for its dismantling to save a generation from addiction and cleanse the country from its lethal consequences,” Panelo said.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs “shall continue until the last bastion of the drug syndicate is destroyed,” he added.

“The war on drugs by the President shall continue until the last bastion of the drug syndicate is destroyed pursuant to his constitutional duty to serve and protect the people,” he said.

Malacañang had already refuted Aquino’s claims by citing their own figures and saying that the results of Duterte’s anti-illegal drug campaign can “speak for themselves.” Airei Kim Guanga, INQUIRER.net trainee/JE