Palace: Robredo’s appointment as drug czar a ‘ladder to the presidency’

Presidential spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo’s appointment as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) is a “ladder to the presidency,” Malacañang said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said this as she urged Robredo to accept her appointment as President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug czar.

“We’re giving her a ladder to the presidency, this is her chance, this is her moment. She should accept it,” Panelo said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

Panelo earlier announced that Duterte has signed Robredo’s appointment as ICAD co-chairperson.

“Be in the moment, help the Filipinos. Help the country and help herself, show her colleagues that she can do it,” he added.

As co-chair of ICAD, the Vice President will now “lead the Government’s efforts against illegal drugs until 30 June 2022, unless sooner revoked,” according to a memorandum dated October 31, 2019, and signed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

This came after Duterte vowed to name Robredo as his drug czar after the latter criticized his brutal war on drugs.

Panelo, in a separate television interview, said Robredo is “bright enough” to lead the campaign against illegal drugs, a pronouncement in stark contrast to that of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino’s assessment that the Vice President lacks the experience to curb illegal drugs.

“I think Director Aquino is just expressing his mind and basing on his own experience. But the Vice President is bright enough. She’s a lawyer… she can do it if she so desires,” Panelo said.

As PDEA chief, Aquino is sitting as an ICAD chairperson. /kga

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