Palace: Give Robredo space to outline her own anti-drug scheme

Malacañang on Saturday called on the public to give Vice President Leni Robredo, who was recently named by President Rodrigo Duterte as co-chair of the Inter-agency Council on Anti-Illegal Drugs, the space to have her own strategy against illegal drugs.

"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.

This was after Robredo called a meeting with ICAD on Friday and said the war on drugs can be done without bloodshed.

"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 said.

Robredo also accepted the challenge of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino, her co-chair in IACD, to join an anti-drug operation for her to know the truth on the anti-illegal drug campaign.

The Palace said it is pleased that Robredo is open to such a suggestion.

"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.

The Palace thus called on the public to support Robredo.

"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 added.

Robredo's calling for a meeting with ICAD on Friday also demonstrates her "willingness to suspend all her negative notions about the drug war," the Palace said.

"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. —KG, GMA News