Giving support to Robredo is a way of the pseudo-rights groups to impose its standards on policies which in effect assure that the country toes the Western line that extends to the economic sphere.

The irrepressible critics of President Rody Duterte are going all out in extolling Vice President Leni Robredo, naming her as the deliverer of the correct method in the anti-narcotics campaign.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) had indicated, in effect, that Robredo called Rody’s bluff which, as a result, the possibility of the anti-drug czarina to make the situation work in her favor.

The New York-based critic of Rody said her handling of the flagship campaign of Rody “would mean ending the murderous police drug operations that have become rampant throughout the country.”

The expectation was that she should lead efforts “to develop voluntary, community-based drug dependence treatment services that comport with international best practice standards and human rights principles.”

HRW concluded by postulating that “the Philippines needs to rethink its drug policies and just maybe Robredo is the one who can kickstart that process.”

Amnesty International (AI), the London-based group, said the posting would be an empty gesture unless Rody provides Robredo with the “power to halt the daily killings and change the deadly command structure.”

“Her appointment does not change the fact that the Duterte administration’s ‘war on drugs’ amounts to crimes against humanity,” the group stated matter of factly.

“Just last month, Duterte told a police official to ‘go and kill everybody.’ If this incitement to kill from the very top doesn’t end, the killings and other human rights violations won’t end either,” it concluded.

To cut the chase, what the detractors of Rody wanted is nothing short of him stepping down and to let their favored Vice President take over not just the drug war but in running the country in complete disregard of the mandate given to the President.

Both the HRW and AI never came up with an indisputable proof of their allegations of “daily killings” and “murderous operations” in the war on drugs, except for the fiery rhetoric of Rody against criminals and drug traffickers.

Robredo’s advocacy of a public health approach in solving the drug problem is consistent with the Western view that the two rights groups are similarly trying to ram down the gullet of Rody.

The basic principle of the method is to set up rehabilitation clinics in every community to take in addicts instead of putting them behind bars.

Cost is the main obstacle to such a policy which, even with international help, would be hard to achieve since it would require a huge army of doctors and behavioral experts to staff the centers.

The government does not have enough resources to even assure that each barangay will have doctors and health facilities to comply with the Universal Health Care law, for resources to be diverted to treating substance abuse.

Giving support to Robredo is a way of the pseudo-rights groups to impose its standards on policies which in effect assure that the country toes the Western line that extends to the economic sphere.

The myth about thousands of people “killed in a wave of state-sanctioned violence associated with the war on drugs since the start of Duterte’s presidency in 2016” has been peddled since the start of Rody’s term in 2016.

The supposed methods employed in the campaign have “reached the threshold of crimes against humanity,” according to the usual critics.

The tale has been passed on from one detractor to another without the offer of any proof to back it up.

In the end, Robredo would have to pursue the same path and it is already manifesting in her impossible demands as co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs.

It would be hard to reconcile the purpose of Robredo that is aligned with the detractors of Rody and the real intent of the war on drugs, which is to safeguard the nation’s welfare against drug trafficking which breeds nearly all the beastly crimes that can be imagined.

As what Rody had previously said, it is about priority: “Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives.”