Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Vice President Leni Robredo should be allowed to perform her duties as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) without intervention from her “backers.”
“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 in a statement.
Robredo had a meeting with ICAD member agencies together with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief, Aaron Aquino last Friday, it was gathered, during which she reportedly revealed she wants to pursue a more “evidence-based approach” in the current war on drugs to minimize the killings.
The Vice President said she wants the drug problem to be solved internally before any intervention from international organizations like the United Nations can be done.
“We take note that the Vice President 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,” Panelo said.
He also encouraged everyone to give Robredo a space for her to do her duty.
“We call on everybody to give VP Leni space, allow her to perform her assigned task and not to 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,” Panelo said. (TN)
