Undoubtedly, Robredo’s idea of pursuing an anti-illegal drug war ‘with zeal,’ but with ‘zero killings,’ highlights her ineptitude to lead the anti-narcotics campaign of the government.

Last Thursday, Maria Leonor Robredo, the newly appointed vice chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, announced that the government’s war on narcotics will be fought with the same zeal as President Rodrigo Duterte pursuit of his anti-illegal drugs campaign, “but there will be zero killings.”

That statement indicates that the anti-illegal drugs campaign is on the road to real failure.

As co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee, Robredo does not call the shots for the entire group. She must act in coordination with the chairman of the committee and the leaders of the 20 other government agencies comprising it. The committee operates as a collegial body and this early, Robredo has unilaterally vested upon herself all its powers.

If the other members of the committee should protest Robredo’s usurpation of power, she will likely claim that her advisers were right — she has no power in the committee. She may use that as an excuse to insist anew to the public that the President’s anti-illegal drugs campaign is a failure.

More unsettling is Robredo’s plan to fight the nation’s drug menace with zeal, but with “zero killings.” Her plan is downright impractical, impossible even, and reveals her lack of a basic understanding of the nature of the government’s war against illegal drugs.

Take note that Robredo did not say “minimal or limited casualties,” but “zero killings.” Good grief!

There are casualties in every war. Belligerents will have their share of casualties. Even the innocent is not spared. It’s the very nature of war. Peaceful nations do not like war, but when war is imposed upon them, they have no choice but to fight.

President Duterte’s campaign against the drug menace in the Philippines is aptly called “a war” on the illegal drug trade precisely because the enemy is certain to fight back with all its might and formidable resources. Being a war, the campaign has its share of casualties.

Since the drug syndicates in the Philippines have no plans of stopping their operations, their very existence in the country is in itself a declaration of war on the nation. With war imposed on the nation by the drug syndicates, the government has no choice but to fight the enemy by any lawful means necessary.

Robredo seems unaware that the illegal drug trade in the country is operated by syndicates led by wealthy, powerful and influential drug lords, both local and overseas. These syndicates keep trained killers in their payroll, all of whom will not hesitate to murder anybody who gets in their way. They also maintain arsenals of firearms powerful enough to make even the most well-armed elite policemen of the country look like mere gun hobbyists.

With so much money to make from the illegal drug trade, drug lords will not hesitate to use all the firepower their private armies can muster to neutralize threats to their operations and existence. That means violent confrontations between the drug syndicates and law enforcers will take place, and during those occasions, casualties from both sides, and from the civilian population as well, are inevitable.

Undoubtedly, Robredo’s idea of pursuing an anti-illegal drug war “with zeal,” but with “zero killings,” highlights her ineptitude to lead the anti-narcotics campaign of the government. No wonder Aaron Aquino, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, earlier predicted that Robredo will fail as a leader of the government’s war on illegal drugs.

Days before she accepted her appointment to the committee, Robredo adamantly insisted on an international probe of the government’s anti-drug campaign. Two days ago, she was singing a different tune. She announced that she is no longer keen on an international probe of the government’s anti-drug campaign. That’s plain and simple duplicity on the part of Robredo.

Robredo’s duplicity disturbingly suggests that she announced a “zero killing” blueprint to sabotage President Duterte’s anti-narcotics war effort and discredit it as “a proven failure.” To wash her hands of any role in the “failed effort,” she can simply say, “I was only a powerless co-chairman of the committee.”

There goes the nation’s anti-narcotics campaign.