Duterte: Robredo a 'colossal blunder' for drug war report
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday joined many others slamming the recently published report of Vice President Leni Robredo, whom the president called a "colossal blunder."
Robredo on Monday released her recommendations on the government's war on drugs to much backlash, with the Palace calling her report a "dud" and an attempt to be "relevant." Lawmakers, too, panned her for overlooking what they said were the accomplishments of the so-called "war on drugs."
"If ever she becomes president, gawin niya 'yun. Pero she can't lecture me what to do," Duterte said. "She has been there how many days, 17? 18 days."
Duterte went as far as attacking Robredo's very election to her post, calling it a mistake.
"I hate to say this but how many voters are there in the Philippines and just do away with the 200,000 plus that she got over Marcos -- it was really a mistake," he said. "With a slim margin and you talk this big."
The exact number was 278,566. The latest recount by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal confirmed that Robredo won her bid for the vice presidency with 14,436,337 votes compared to her opponent's 14,157,771.
This even prompted defeated candidate Bongbong Marcos to ask the High Court to nullify votes in three provinces.
Attack on inexperience
Panelo made nearly the exact same comments about the vice president at a briefing held in Malacañang shortly after her report was publicized.
“Ang problema ilang araw lang siya nakaupo doon, ang dami na niyang sinasabi. Wala naman siyang expertise,” Panelo said.
“It’s the experts who should give us recommendations: those involved in the drug war. Wala siya doon from the very beginning.”
Foreign Affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. also reacted negatively to Robredo's report on Tuesday, saying, "How does she know that 5,500 dead drug dealers are precisely just 1 percent of the entire manufacturing, importing and marketing sales force? Only the cartels can have the exact figure."
In response to the president's pronouncements, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chairperson Nonoy Espina tweeted, "He admits knowing the PNP is a major problem yet let them be judge, jury and executioner for the past three years under his protective mantle. What does that make him then?"
Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde echoed these sentiments, pointing out that the Palace's attacks on Robredo hardly answered the questions raised in her report.
"Thing is, Robredo merely used govt data & did her own crunching. But instead of answering the issues raised by those numbers, Palace attacks her for being political," he said.
"Of course this is political! But Robredo's report confirms what we've been saying: this "drug war" is a sham."
READ: Duterte's offer for Leni not an admission that drug war failed — Panelo
Duterte, too, brought politics into the fray when he announced he would limit the information available to the vice president on a "need to know" basis, saying he did not trust her because she was part of the opposition.
Following Robredo's removal, human rights organization Amnesty Intenational said Robredo’s proposals to reform the anti-drug campaign were never given a chance.
“In only a few weeks, Vice President Robredo was able to confront the government with the staggering scale of its own crimes. That is why she was sacked,” Butch Olano, Amnesty International Philippines, said.
DDB: Importance of data valid, but PDEA should be ICAD lead
The Dangerous Drugs Board also affirmed Robredo's emphasis on the importance of data in informing decisions in the campaign against drugs.
In a statement released Monday night, DDB Chairman Catalino Cuy said the board took note of Robredo's pronouncement that the data employed by the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD) was often conflicting and lacked a sound basis.
"DDB recognizes the importance of having a unified data and scientific basis of the important aspects of the anti-drug campaign in aid of policy, program development, and effective implementation of targets and deliverables," Cuy said.
"The figures on the number of drug users in 2015 need updating considering that after the launch of the anti-drug campaign of the current administration, the number of drug surrenderers have [risen]."
READ: Robredo points out 'inconsistent' government data on 'drug war'
Among other comments, Robredo called for the DDB to be the lead body in the campaign against drugs and called for a shift in focus toward bigger drug lords and high-value targets instead of just small-time pushers.
"[W]e put premium to both drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction," Cuy said.
The DDB in their statement, though, disagreed with this and said that the PDEA was the rightful leader of the ICAD.
"It is but proper that PDEA chairs the ICAD, which is operational in nature since it creates an inter-agency mechanism that will unify the implementation of anti-drug priorities by the different government agencies," DDB said.
The statement also outlined that the DDB was working with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to work on an updated survey to provide more accurate numbers to inform administrative decision-making.
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