Palace: Give Robredo space to outline her own scheme vs illegal drugs

(Eagle News)–The Palace on Saturday, Nov. 9, urged the public to give Vice President Leni Robredo space to allow her to perform her task as drug czar.

“The Vice President must be given a wide latitude in outlining her own anti-illegal drug scheme and pursue, without interference from other quarter backers, her own agenda which she envisions to be effective in addressing the drug menace,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo issued the statement following what he said were some quarters trying to pit President Rodrigo Duterte against Robredo.

“Noting that the pronounced policy of the Drug Czar appears to be in direct contrast of what they wrongly perceive to be the bloody strategy of President Rodrigo Duterte, the detractors and nitpickers pounce on the apparent strategic contradiction and have raised the spectre of, even this early, a collision between the appointee and the appointing power,” Panelo explained.

He said the public should not  create ” roadblocks and imagined conflicts, pitting her against her fellow workers of government by way of intrigues, as well as wild and off-tangent speculations engineered by the usual suspects.”

He said the Vice President, after all, “must be given a wide latitude in outlining her own anti-illegal drug scheme and pursue, without interference from other quarter backers, her own agenda which she envisions to be effective in addressing the drug menace.”

“We are pleased to note that VP Leni is open to our suggestion that she oversee — and without putting her life in peril, personally join — any operation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) or the police against drug lords and pushers, that she may see the hostile and mortal realities on the ground that could pave the way for the reassessment of her previous adversarial position on the government’s relentless drive against prohibited drugs or her adoption of better and effective measures not heretofore done,” Panelo said.

Panelo also noted that Robredo “called for the meeting to acquaint herself on the status of the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, a step demonstrative of her willingness to suspend all her negative notions about the drug war, mostly based on false if not exaggerated information and media hype.”

He was referring to the first meeting held by Robredo as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee Against Illegal Drugs on Friday, Nov. 8.

“The Vice President must be given a wide latitude in outlining her own anti-illegal drug scheme and pursue, without interference from other quarter backers, her own agenda which she envisions to be effective in addressing the drug menace,” Panelo said.