Palace open to ending Tokhang as Leni wants

Malacañang on Monday expressed openness to Vice President Leni Robredo’s plan of changing the government’s strategy in its campaign against illegal drugs.

Robredo said last Friday that many “senseless killings” have accompanied Oplan Tokhang— the police's knock-and plead-strategy of convincing drug suspects to stop using illegal drugs— as she suggested thinking about shifting to other “effective” methods.

“If she wants to scrap it eh siya ang anti-drug czar, kung sa tingin niya meron pang mas effective sa tokhang eh di gawin niya,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.

Asked to clarify if its the Tokhang operations or campaign that the Palace was open to scrapping, Panelo said, "Basta si VP Leni ang in-charge. So, whatever she feels that should be enforced, we will do it."

Panelo added Robredo “should be given a wide latitude and she should pursue her own scheme of things in pursuing the drug war initiated by this administration.”

“We will give her all that she needs,” he said.

Robredo accepted the post of co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs last week, which was offered by President Rodrigo Duterte days after he took exception to her statement that the war on drugs was ineffective in curbing drug use.

The Vice President took on the challenge from Duterte to lead the campaign despite warnings from her allies and supporters that she was being set up to fail.

Robredo said she treated her appointment as a “signal” that the President was open to “listening to a fresh perspective.”

She has pushed for zero killings in the campaign, which has claimed the lives of nearly 5,800 drug users and pushers since Duterte took office in 2016.

"Iyang ang kanyang gusto pero whether mangyayari 'yan on the ground is another thing," Panelo said when asked to comment on Robredo's zero killing approach. —LDF, GMA News