Robredo: Violence in drug campaign will never succeed

Vice President Leni Robredo pitched for the "public health approach" in curbing the illegal drug problem, saying countries who tried to solve it using  violence did not succeed.

“The public health approach  is the route that we should take because those countries all over the world who resorted to violence were never successful," the newly-appointed co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Illegal Drugs (ICAD) said during the Women Today forum in Pasay City.

"The countries which viewed it thru a public health approach were the ones who were able to reach a certain level of success,” Robredo added.

The Vice President said she also wants the administration’s anti-drug policy to be more inclusive to different sectors as guided by her discussions on best practices of countries all over the world.   

Robredo earlier met with representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and discussed ways to improve  management of  community-based rehabilitation centers for drug dependents.

During the forum, Robredo said motherhood gave her the mettle to face the challenges brought about by her new job in the campaign against illegal drugs.

Some critics have warned that with Robredo at the helm, drug traffickers and dependents would be treated with kid gloves, especially after she said that there would be zero killings under her policy.

“When I was appointed, there are those who said I lack courage because I am just a mother and a woman. But the role that requires the most courage, resolve and strength is being a mother,” Robredo, a lawyer, said in her keynote speech on rearing the next generation.

“To the women in this room and across the nation, you are made to survive during the most difficult times and lead with great strength and empathy based on deep well of love, courage and integrity,” Robredo added. —LDF, GMA News