Leni Robredo meets with representatives from UN Office on Drugs and Crime

Vice President Leni Robredo met with the officials from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday morning in connection with her new role as the co-chair of the inter-agency committee on anti-illegal drugs (ICAD).

“This morning, I had a meeting with the representative of the UN,” Robredo said.

“We will give you an update kung ano iyong mga resolutions after these meetings,” she added.

It was not immediately clear whether or not Robredo's meeting with a UNODC representative had anything to do with the United Nations Human Rights Council pending investigation on the deaths blamed on the war on drugs.

The UNHRC in July voted to set up an investigation into thousands of killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's so-called 'war on drugs'—a step that activists said was long overdue.

The government had said that around 6,600 people had been killed by police in shootouts with suspected drug dealers since Duterte was elected in 2016, on a platform of crushing crime.

Activists pegged the death toll at more than 27,000.

Robredo made the announcement about her meeting with the UN representative ahead of her meeting with the core members of the Community-Based Drug Rehab Alliance (COBRA), of which the Office of the Vice President is a part.

COBRA is composed of groups from the ranks of the academe, LGUs and faith-based organizations who work for humane solutions to the Philippine drug situation.

Robredo is the recently appointed co-chair of the ICAD, the other being Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino.

who earlier challenged the Vice President to join PDEA’s anti-drug operations to ensure that police operations abide by the rule of law.

Robredo accepted the challenge but maintained that she will be on board anti-drug operations only if her presence would not disturb the law enforcement agents of fulfilling their mandate. —NB, GMA News