YEN MAKABENTA

First wordI AM asked by readers why I have not contributed my thoughts on Vice President (VP) Maria Leonor Robredos earthshaking report on the administrations war on drugs.

I refrained from comment for two reasons.

First, I find it difficult to give credence to VP Robredos report because she was never formally appointed to either 1) help in the implementation of the drug control program; or 2) investigate the ongoing drug war like an appointed commission of inquiry or public investigator.

If the report is the result of her 18-day stint as co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD), I will ask how so brief an assignment enabled her to gain so much information and insights into the program that she can pronounce judgment over it

ICADs mission is mainly to coordinate the work of various government agencies that are involved in one way or another in the campaign against illegal drugs, such as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Policy-making for the drug program is vested in the DDB, as established by law. Implementation of drug policy is principally the work of PDEA, again as set by law.

At ICAD, Robredos work was peripheral to what was going on or had gone on in the program. She had no authority to do an investigation, let alone an extensive inquiry. She could ask for records of this and that or throw a few questions. But rendering an evaluation of the whole program was not part of her job description. She took on this assignment on her own volition.

Second, Robredo assumed that as ICAD vice chairman, she could make policy on her own with respect to the drug campaign, and that she could render an evaluation of the drug program.

But nothing in the work of ICAD covers these, they were entirely in the VPs imagination.

Commission of inquiryIt was not as if VP Robredo was asked by the President or Congress to head a commission of inquiry into the war on drugs, in much the same way that President Marcos created the Agrava Commission to conduct an inquiry and formal investigation of the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. on Aug. 23, 1983.

If such a commission of inquiry were created for the drug war, the nation would justifiably have looked forward to its report on the investigation.

Robredos stint at ICAD is not even comparable to an investigation by a congressional committee on the drug war. This too would have conducted hearings and called witnesses. The public would be justified to look forward to the committee report.

In truth, Robredos report is really more like a piece of investigative journalism conducted on the war on drugs. It is similar to the reports of local and foreign media organizations that sought to take the measure of the drug campaign at various stages over the past three years.

As such, the Robredo inquiry would have been subject to the limitations and prejudgments that such independent inquiries fall into.

Would-be anti-drug czarWhen President Duterte designated Vice President Robredo as vice chairman of ICAD, she hurtled like a cannonball out of the appointment system, it was impossible even for a media organization like The Manila Times to keep track of what she was doing and of her many plans and initiatives.

First, Robredo declared that there should be no more deaths in anti-drug operations. She suggested that it was time to scrap Oplan Tokhang from the drug campaign because it was anti-poor and should be replaced. She apparently thought that she had been handed the authority to make policy in the anti-drug campaign.

Second, she got headlines when she said she was planning her own drug war and demanded that she be given a free hand in handling the drug menace in the country, free from interference by quarterbackers.

And then, she started meeting with officials of the United States and the United Nations.

When PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, who co-heads ICAD with Robredo, challenged her to join an operation in the drug war, she readily agreed.

We are not backing down from a challenge. For me, whats important is what will be the result of the operation? Not who is there, she said.

Hollow appointmentFor all the flurry of activities, however, the ICAD appointment was essentially hollow. There was no clear light on the position she was supposedly appointed to and the duties and responsibilities that she was taking on.

Up to the end of her 18-day stint, Robredo never got the document that identified the scope of her responsibilities as co-chairman of ICAD, a position that is non-existent in the original executive order that created the inter-agency body.

But the lady was unfazed.

She declared: I dont want to waste time, so on the day that I accepted the designation, I already buckled down to work.

Her excitement was understandable.

She was waiting eagerly for another opportunity to join the Duterte administration, especially the Cabinet. She remembered her misery when she lost her place in the Cabinet after President Duterte took offense over some of her antics and statements, and fired her.

So this time around, the Vice President was determined to make a success of her second chance to serve in the Duterte Cabinet.

She glossed over the fact that the executive order creating ICAD does not create a post for a vice chairman. It includes many government agencies, but makes no mention of the vice president.

In effect, what really happened was that the vice president was being designated to serve in a temporary capacity, much like being given a chore to do. This happens all the time in the executive branch of government; the president designates executive officials to perform various tasks temporarily.

A wallflower in the drug warIn the total scheme of things in the campaign against illegal drugs, VP Robredo was really no more than a wallflower who had been given a fancy assignment in the campaign, but no real functions to fill. She was superfluous in the campaign.

She continued to be officially the Vice President, of course, but she had nothing to do with the drug campaign. No one reported to her, She did not even have an office as vice chairman. All she had was her grim determination to make a resounding success of her stint at ICAD.

Making a full-blown report on the drug war is one of her personal measures of being a success.

This is why, at the very start of her ICAD stint, she threatened to send a report on the drug war ever week to President Duterte. This way, she would demonstrate how hard she was working.

At the same time, she would also issue a press release or statement every day on what she was doing or what was in her mind.

All this vanished overnight when President Duterte suddenly decided to cut short her stint as ICAD vice chairman, just 18 days after her designation.

A problem of credenceOf what value then is her much-publicized report on the drug war, which declared it to be a massive failure?

I frankly cannot take the Robredo report on the drug war seriously, because I do not see in the record any effort or activity on her part that could have enabled her to achieve a full picture or privileged insight into the three-year campaign. She heard no testimony or quizzed any witnesses to piece together her report. She based everything on what was reportedly passed on to her when she was ICAD vice chairman, and on what was already in her mind from the very start.

In my view, VP Robredo was no more than a wallflower in the war on drugs who performed no essential task or function.

Being superfluous to the whole operation and her designation lasting no more than 18 days, Robredo has nothing substantive to report to the nation.

Would you turn to a wallflower to report on what happened at the prom or the dance?

Of course not.

[emailprotected]

Read this article:

A wallflower's report on the war on drugs - The Manila Times