Vice President Leni Robredo yesterday fired back at President Duterte following her dismissal as Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs co-chair.
“Ano ba ang kinatatakutan ninyong malaman ko? Ano ba ang kinatatakutan ninyong malaman ng taumbayan?” Robredo asked.
Robredo, who is the leader of the opposition, said Duterte appeared to be hiding something on the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
She warned him she would reveal what she discovered about the drug war.
“Sa mga susunod na araw magbibigay ako ng ulat sa bayan. Sasabihin ko ang aking natuklasan at ang aking mga rekomendasyon,” she said in Naga City.
“Makakaasa kayo kahit tinanggalan ako ng posisyon, hinding-hindi nila kayang tanggalin ang aking determinasyon,” Robredo added.
“Kung sa tingin nila matatapos ito dito, hindi nila ako kilala. Nagsisimula pa lamang ako,” she stressed.
The former anti-drug czar said she gave it all during her short stint at ICAD. She also believed her performance was not a source of conflict.
“Hindi ako nagsayang ng oras. Nakipagpulong agad ako sa ICAD at iba’t ibang mga ahensiya. Kinonsulta natin ang iba’t ibang mga sektor. Pumunta tayo sa mga komunidad. Nakipagpulong tayo sa mga LGUs. Binisita natin ang mga rehab centers,” she said
“Mr. President, hindi ko hiningi ang posisyong ito. Pero sineryoso ko ang trabahong ipinasa ninyo,” she added.
She implied it was the administration that wasn’t ready for her and in the fight against illegal drugs.
“Noong tinanggap ko ang trabahong ito, ang una kong tinanong sa kanila ay: “Handa na ba kayo sa akin?” Ngayon ang tanong ko: Ano bang kinatatakutan ninyo?,” she asked.
“Alalahanin natin na ang droga at mga drug lord ang kalaban – hindi ako, at lalong hindi ang taumbayan.”
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said yesterday lamented the dismissal of Robredo at ICAD.
“Personally, I feel so sad about what happened,” Guevarra said. “There was this opportunity for the administration and even the opposition to bond together and put up a united front against a common enemy which is illegal drugs,” he pointed out.
Malacañang said in Busan, South Korea that Robredo can do whatever she pleases with the information she got when she was still at ICAD.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said that the Vice President can do whatever she wanted with the information since all of these were supposedly handed down to her in the first place. “She can do as she pleases.
Anything that she claims she has discovered was accessed to her,” he said.
According to the Palace official, Robredo was appointed to the position so she can help in the drug war but she turned out to be incompetent.
“She was precisely appointed, apart from giving her the opportunity to assist in the campaign against illegal drugs, to let her know that everything in the drug was and is transparent,” Panelo said.
“She was fired for incompetence, in addition to her failure to introduce new measures she claimed she had, as against what she claimed to be ineffective method in fighting the drug menace. Tinimbang siya ngunit kulang,” he added. (Raymund Antonio, Jeffrey Damicog, and Argyll Geducos)