VP report a dud – Palace
Credit to Author: Catherine S. Valente, TMT| Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 16:18:43 +0000
Malacañang dismissed Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo’s drug report on Monday, saying it contained nothing new and it was a dud.
“If you notice when she was threatening [to release] this report, she implied na meron siyang nadiskubreng iregularidad. Akala mo ay bombang sasabog (that she discovered irregularities. We thought a bomb would explode),” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.
“It’s a dud. Wala naman siyang sinabi d’un na bago, na hindi tututukan ng mga ahensiya na involved laban sa droga (There’s nothing new with what she said, that the agencies involved were not focusing on the war on drugs),” he added.
The Palace official said Robredo released her report because she “just wants to be relevant.”
“Palagay ko ang failure ay ‘yung pag-upo niya [at the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs]. Kung failure ‘yun e ‘di sana ‘yung problema natin sa droga, inabot na siguro ng lahat ng pamilya (I think the failure was when she took part in ICAD. If it was a failure, then our drug problem should have reached all families),” Panelo said.
He disputed Robredo’s claim that the campaign was a failure, pointing out that many villages across the country have been declared “drug-free.”
“The fact remains we have dismantled so many illegal drugs factories; the fact remains we have also caused the surrender of thousands of drug addicts and pushers; the fact remains that due to many police operations there have been casualties by reason of violent reactions to entrapment operations and arrest of these people involved in drugs; also, even high valued target drug suspects have been neutralized,” Panelo added.
He said Robredo could not be considered an expert on the drug war because of her short appointment.
“Ilang araw lang siyang naupo doon eh ang dami na agad niyang sinasabi na wala naman siyang expertise (She was there for only a few days and now she has plenty to say when she has no expertise),” Panelo said. It’s the expert that should give us recommendations, those involved in the drug war.”
Attack
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino described Robredo’s report as a “political attack” against President Rodrigo Duterte.
“I see her recommendations as a mere political attack against President Rodrigo Duterte,” Aquino said in a statement.
He said the vice president dismissed and ignored the government’s efforts and accomplishments on the three-year war on drugs.
Aquino admitted that there were flaws on the anti-drug operations but the ICAD was addressing this issue.
The PDEA chief said the metrics for the anti-illegal drug campaign were drug clearing, crime index, trust rating and operational accomplishments.
Based on PDEA data, 16,706 villages out of 33,881 or 49.13 percent were cleared of illegal drugs.
Aquino said crime incidents also went down in the country.
“The trust rating of President Duterte, the author of the illegal drug war, is at its peak at 87 percent last December,” he said.
He also cited the result of the Social Weather Stations survey in September 2019 that showed that 82 percent of Filipinos were satisfied with the war on drugs.
“Ibig sabihin tama ang ginagawa ng ating national government. Gusto ng tao ang ginagawa ng Pangulong Duterte sa program kontra illegal na droga (This means that the government is doing it right. People like what President Duterte is doing against illegal drugs),” Aquino said.
With a reports from DARWIN PESCO