Robredo failed to see ‘good picture’ of drug war: Duterte

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during his visit to the Taguig City Center for the Elderly on November 21, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo only had a short time at the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) to see a “good picture” of the current administration’s anti-narcotics campaign, President Rodrigo Duterte has said.

Duterte made the statement following Robredo’s recent suggestion that the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) should take ICAD’s helm instead of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

“I cannot make a sweeping statement to say that she is right. Hanggang ‘maybe’ lang siya (‘Maybe’ is the only answer we can give her). Maybe she is right. Maybe I will listen,” Duterte said during an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN aired on Friday night. “But for her stint of 18 days with ICAD, it seems to me (that) it’s (a) very short time to get a good picture.”

On Monday, Robredo said the DDB, not the PDEA, should manage the ICAD because the former can craft policies that would engage all member-agencies of the inter-agency committee, unlike the latter.

The Vice President’s recommendation was included in her report, which contains her observations during her short stint as co-chairperson of ICAD.

Robredo, who was picked as anti-drug czar on Oct. 31, 2019, was supposed to help her ICAD co-chair, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, in addressing the drug menace in the country until June 30, 2022.

The ICAD is currently led by only one chair, Aquino, after Robredo was stripped of her role in the anti-drug body in November last year due to her supposed failure to present new measures that would help the government improve its fight against illegal drugs.

The DDB is one of the member-agencies of ICAD.

The ICAD, created through Executive Order 15 inked by Duterte on March 6, 2017, is tasked to ensure the member-agencies’ implementation of and compliance with all policies, laws, and issuances on the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign, in an “integrated and synchronized manner.”

On Dec. 12, 2019, Aquino said Robredo failed to see the “total picture” of the drug menace in the country during her short stint in ICAD because she only met with the enforcement cluster, one of four clusters of the anti-drug body.

He said the Vice President missed the opportunity to hold a dialogue with the justice; advocacy; and rehabilitation and reintegration clusters.