By Ellson Quismorio
House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said Vice President Leni Robredo is "starting on the wrong mouth" as far as her new job description as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) is concerned.
House speaker Alan Peter Cayetano
(PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Cayetano, a close ally of President Rodrigo Duterte's, had this to say in an interview Monday morning on CNN Philippines's The Source, wherein he reckoned that Robredo has to respect the administration's work in ridding the country of illegal drugs the last three years.
"Wag ka muna mag-comment hangga't 'di mo nakikita yung nangyayari sa ground (Refrain from commenting if you haven't seen what's happening on the ground)," the Speaker was quoted as saying on Twitter.
He went on to claim that the Duterte administration's ongoing anti-illegal drugs campaign is the most successful in the country since the 1970s.
Last week, Robredo, chairperson of the Liberal Party (LP), accepted the President's appointment of her as co-chair of ICAD alongside Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino.
She said she would continue to criticize the conduct of the drug war despite this.
Robredo, in her first meeting with ICAD, slammed the "senseless killings" in connection with the anti-illegal drug campaign and sought to put an end to the bloodshed.
"We want a humane war, no deaths, but it might not be the reality," Cayetano said in the same interview.
‘All-talk’
The Speaker further described Robredo as “all-talk” so far in her capacity as ICAD co-chair.
“I've been monitoring for the last three days, and parang from 'Operating Tokhang,' parang naging ‘Operation All-Talk’ eh. Well, nagulat ako (It has become more like ‘Operation All-Talk.’ Well, it surprised me).
“I guess it just so happens that the Vice President is the favorite media, or she likes media exposure,” Cayetano added.
“But usually in her first three days, sa office ko nga the first month (in my case, in my first month in office), I asked people to be involved in all the meetings, get yourself acquainted, and everything, then do the talking later,” he noted.