{"id":236746,"date":"2019-11-05T21:56:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T02:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=236746"},"modified":"2019-11-05T21:56:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T02:56:19","slug":"robredos-appointment-to-anti-drugs-body-valid-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/05\/robredos-appointment-to-anti-drugs-body-valid-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Robredo\u2019s appointment to anti-drugs body valid: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Duterte can appoint Robredo as co-chair of ICAD, based on the powers granted on him by the \u201cinstructive\u201d Article 7, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution and Book III, Title III, Chapter 10, Section 31 of the 1987 Administrative Code, Panelo emphasized. (File photo<\/a>: VP Leni Robredo\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday disputed the claim of Vice President Maria Leonor \u201cLeni\u201d Robredo\u2019s camp that her appointment as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) was non-existent and unclear.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo lectured Robredo\u2019s spokesperson, lawyer Barry Gutierrez, that it was \u201cunnecessary\u201d for President Rodrigo R. Duterte to amend Executive Order (EO) 15 to make the Vice President\u2019s designation as ICAD co-chair legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer mouthpiece is quoted as saying that PRRD\u2019s (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) offer to VP Leni to become the Drug Czar is not sincere because the position is non-existent pointing to Executive Order No. 15 (s. 2017) as the basis. We hate to educate a member of the bar but obviously the agent of the principal needs to brush up his law,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is basic legal doctrine that the President, as the sole repository of executive power, has the exclusive and awesome prerogative of control over all offices and officials in the Executive Branch. He has the inherent continuing authority to create positions and items, as well as to reorganize instrumentalities, within the bureaucracy,\u201d Panelo added.<\/p>\n

EO 15, signed by Duterte on March 6, 2017, delegates the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as chairperson of ICAD, an anti-drug body tasked to ensure the implementation of all policies, laws and issuances on the government\u2019s anti-narcotics campaign.<\/p>\n

Duterte can appoint Robredo as co-chair of ICAD, based on the powers granted on him by the \u201cinstructive\u201d Article 7, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution and Book III, Title III, Chapter 10, Section 31 of the 1987 Administrative Code, Panelo emphasized.<\/p>\n

Article 7, Section 17 of the Constitution states that, \u201cThe President shall have control of all executive departments, bureaus and offices. He shall ensure that the laws be faithfully executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Book III, Title III, Chapter 10, Section 31 of the 1987 Administrative Code, meantime, provides that Duterte, as the country\u2019s president, has the continuing authority to \u201creorganize the administrative structure of the Office of the President\u201d.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the President appointed Robredo as ICAD co-chair to give her an opportunity to help the administration in combating illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn offering and appointing VP Leni as Drug Czar, the President is simply being open to suggestions from a critic of the drug war. PRRD believes that there is no better person who can implement such suggestions than the person making them,\u201d the Palace official said.<\/p>\n

Stop \u2018excuses,\u2019 accept offer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robredo has yet to accept Duterte\u2019s offer, as her appointment as co-chairperson of ICAD is \u201cunclear\u201d and \u201cnon-existent,\u201d Gutierrez said in a press conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez also claimed that the Vice President\u2019s new designation sends a message that the current administration\u2019s drug war is \u201cfailing\u201d.<\/p>\n

He apparently echoed Robredo\u2019s statement last month that Duterte\u2019s crackdown on narcotics trade was \u201cobviously not working,\u201d prompting Duterte to challenge her to lead the campaign against drug personalities in the country.<\/p>\n

Panelo maintained that the President’s anti-narcotics drive is \u201cfar from being a failure or ineffective, as proposed by [Robredo].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Duterte presidency has unearthed the magnitude and gravity of the drug menace and the Administration is vigorously addressing it, achieving results no previous administration was able to accomplish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead of making \u201cexcuses and demands,\u201d Robredo should accept the President\u2019s offer, Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo added that the Palace was giving the Vice President a benefit of the doubt and that she wants to contribute to the success of Duterte\u2019s drug war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the face of a challenge to offer meaningful public service, the camp of VP Leni has been hewing and dodging, giving all sorts of excuses and demands. We would like to think that they do not come from VP Leni herself but from her advisers who apparently would not want her to succeed in serving the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe advise the Vice President to reflect and give the matter a careful thought. Sleep over it. The challenge of meaningful public service necessarily involves a huge burden. Public office is a public trust,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the Palace remains optimistic that Robredo would accept the \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d to lead the fight against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not believe that the Vice President is incapable of rising up to the challenge and doing justice to the trust reposed upon her by Filipino people, unless of course she proves us wrong by declining the appointment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Vice-President is welcome to the Cabinet. It is a golden opportunity worth taking. This is her moment. She should seize it. Destiny beckons. History awaits her,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday disputed the claim of Vice President Maria Leonor \u201cLeni\u201d Robredo\u2019s camp that her appointment as co-chairperson …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":224193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236747,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236746\/revisions\/236747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}