“For all purposes, the ICAD co-head manifested that the war on drugs was a sham since the reason for De Lima’s incarceration was the suspicion that she was in charge of the New Bilibid Prison narcotics operations.

Vice President Leni Robredo could have lasted longer than the less than three weeks she spent as the anti-narcotics czarina had she put politics aside and made good of the golden opportunity given to her to serve the government.

President Rody Duterte was willing to hand her the leadership of the critical war on drugs until 2022 when they both step down apparently in his consideration that the Vice President will offer a fresh perspective or method in ending the scourge.

Instead, Robredo immediately directed the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) to produce the list of high-value drug lords that is a state secret and is a document that even the top echelon of the Philippines National Police or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which are the two entities in the forefront of the war on drugs, has limited access to.

PDEA chief Aaron Aquino, Robredo’s complement in the ICAD, expressed surprise on the demand wondering what she intended to do with the dossier, since he himself does not have the authority to bring the list out of its vault.

Still, Rody acceded and ordered the ICAD to provide the information to the Vice President but on a “need to know” basis, which means that she had to inform the body of her purpose before she can have access to the list.

Her next move was to meet foreign interlopers such as officials of the United States and the United Nations, which both had opposed Rody’s campaign and which both subscribed to the assessment of extrajudicial killings in the course of its implementation.

While she made sure that reports are issued to the President, there was no assurance that full disclosure was made on those meetings.

Moreover, the people the Vice President met were the same personalities that she has been in contact with before her designation as anti-drugs czarina, but this time Robredo can boast having the government’s seal in her discussions.

Still the President relented, issuing the only condition that Robredo does not disclose the information she gathers as head of the anti-drugs body.

While the Palace sets the parameters to the new anti-drugs head who skipped meeting with the President to get directions on her new post, she and her yellow allies issued progressive streams of taunts and dares for Rody to fire her.

Still Rody was adamant about retaining her even as it was plain that there is no redemption for the political agenda that Robredo brought with her to the ICAD.

The last straw would have been Robredo’s signing of the manifesto to unconditionally release detained Sen. Leila de Lima who is the first big fish apprehended in the war on drugs.

The manifesto was signed by all the individuals and groups who have criticized the anti-narcotics campaign.

For all purposes, the ICAD co-head manifested that the war on drugs was a sham since the reason for De Lima’s incarceration was the suspicion that she was in charge of the New Bilibid Prison narcotics operations.

In the end, Rody has had enough and made his order to boot out Robredo from ICAD his departure statement on his way to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations event in Busan, South Korea.

Rody’s spokesman Sal Panelo said the President expected her to present an alternate program to end the social blight.

“All she had to do was present a new program on illegal drugs that’s better than the one she has criticized as a failure or ineffective, but she failed to do that,” Panelo said.

“More than two weeks have passed but she has yet to present a program,” he said.

The vindictive nature of yellow politics in which Robredo is part of precludes the recognition of good intent in the gesture of Rody in reaching out to the Vice President to join the government in the battle against narcotics. Robredo’s appointment was the result of her unrelenting criticism of the methods employed in the war on drugs.

She and her allies took the designation as a poisoned chalice that made her acceptance of the offer as a political ploy, with Robredo having her eyes fixed on 2022.

Her failure to shed off her political hide is Robredo’s undoing and she now faces the prospect of an ignominious retreat to the political background to share the fate of the also-rans in the recent elections collectively called Otso Diretso.