Leni calls drug allegations against Roxas, Drilon ‘baseless’

Drug connection allegation against Senator Franklin Drilon and Mar Roxas is “baseless,” according to Vice President Leni Robredo.

Vice-President Leni Robredo has called “baseless” the allegations linking her defeated running mate Manuel Roxas II and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon to the illegal drug trade.

“I don’t think they need to defend [themselves] because in the first place, it’s baseless,” Robredo told reporters in Pampanga on Friday, according to an official transcript provided by the Office of the Vice-President.

She also dared detractors: “If there’s indeed a case, then file the case.”

Asked if she would defend Roxas and Drilon from the allegations, Robredo, the chairperson of the Liberal Party, said: “Me, I don’t think they would need my help. They can defend themselves.”

The Liberal Party, the ruling coalition during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III which fanatics of President Rodrigo Duterte now blame for “destabilization,” said on Thursday that the drug allegations were part of government’s “all-out attempt to demonize LP” and to “divert attention from pressing issues.”

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre on Oct. 25 said prosecutors may conduct a preliminary investigation and treat as a criminal complaint the Oct. 18 affidavit of Ricky Serenio, a confessed bagman of the Berya drug cartel.

Serenio claimed Drilon and Roxas were the protectors of suspected drug personality Melvin Odicta Sr., who was killed in Aklan province in August 2016.

The Duterte administration had already sent his nemesis, Senator Leila de Lima, to jail after she was charged with nonbailable drug charges. She was accused of involvement in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prisons on the basis of testimonies by inmates and disgruntled subordinates.