By Raymund Antonio Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday the local government units (LGUs) should get support instead of being probed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during this time of the COVID-19 crisis. Vice-President Leni Robredo
(Mark Balmores / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) “Unacceptable siya, kasi nakita natin na unang-una, iyong mensahe ng Pangulo noong umpisa pa, pinapasa sa local government units ‘yung pag-asikaso sa kanya-kanyang jurisdiction,” she said. (It is unacceptable, because we saw from the start that the President's message was that the responsibility was passed on to the local government units to attend to their respective jurisdictions.) The vice president said this in an ANC interview when asked for her reaction to NBI’s invitation to Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto to be questioned over supposed quarantine violations. The NBI earlier summoned Sotto for possibly violating the Bayanihan Act when he allowed tricycles to operate in Pasig City amid the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine due to COVID-19, wherein all public transportation was suspended. Robredo said the efforts of local officials who “innovate” and have “creative” solutions against COVID-19 should be appreciated. “Iyong move ng NBI, kontra iyon sa dapat na ini-encourage natin in a time like this,” the Robredo, who is an opposition leader, pointed out. (The move of NBI contradicts encouraging them in a time like this.) The vice president noted “strong local government units will give progress to the country” so she found it “wrong” for the NBI to let national government centralize the efforts. “It looks like NBI wants the national government to always give the order -- that local government units should not exceed the efforts of the national government,” she said in Filipino. “I think if there is an innovation that will be good to the people, it should be celebrated. We need to give attention to it so it will become a best practice that other local government units can adopt,” she added.