Philippines’ VP Fired by Duterte From Anti-Drug Post Fires Back
Duterte Fires Vice President from Post on Anti-Drug Body
(Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Vice President Leni Robredo from a government body against illegal drugs, less than three weeks after appointing her to help run it.
Robredo, who was elected separately from the president and heads the opposition Liberal Party, said on Monday that she will issue a report to the nation on what she learned during her brief stint as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.
Since accepting the post on Nov. 6, Robredo has called for the rehabilitation of drug users instead of going after them through police operations that have killed thousands of suspects. She has also met with officials from the U.S. and the United Nations to discuss best practices in solving the drug menace.
Robredo has asked the government for data on narcotics including a list of high-value targets, a request that Duterte’s camp refused.
The 74-year-old Philippine leader, who’s been criticized for his deadly drug war, has rejected a UN resolution seeking to investigate it.
Incompetence
“What are you afraid of? What is it that you fear that the public will know?” Robredo, reacting to Duterte’s decision to oust her, said in a televised speech Monday.
Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said Robredo was fired for her incompetence.
“Given the transparency of her motive to politicize the issue, the intention of the vice president to seek access to confidential law enforcement information cannot be given the benefit of the doubt as being free from malice or manipulation,” he said.
Robredo, 54, promised to continue fighting against human rights violations and seeking accountability in the drug war.
She was housing secretary at the start of Duterte’s six-year term in June 2016 but left the post before the end of that year, after she was told not to attend cabinet meetings. Duterte has repeatedly said that if he had to leave office before his term ends in 2022, his preferred successor is Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is protesting his 2016 vice presidential loss to Robredo.
--With assistance from Andreo Calonzo, Siegfrid Alegado and Sara Marley.
To contact the reporter on this story: Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh
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