Excuses, excuses

“If Leni accepts the job, she knows she will fail, and fail miserably because the truth is, she can’t handle the drug problem in the country.

Now that President Duterte has formally appointed Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chair of an inter-agency committee against narcotics, and for a period of three years, which time she and her camp claimed should be given, and not just three months, yet another excuse has been given by Leni, through her spokesman, Barry Gutierrez, as well as the yellow Liberal Party, through Sen. Kiko Pangilinan.

The latest excuse offered is that Robredo said the appointment is non-existent and therefore not a serious one since the position does not exist. It is a pretty stupid excuse, as the appointment papers are out and considering the fact that the President has the power to appoint any person of his choice to chair or co-chair an agency. The Vice President has been verbally and now formally and officially offered the position for her to accept or reject.

But Gutierrez went on to find more excuses, saying that it is “very clear” that the position of the co-chair under the Executive Order does not exist, stressing that the Office of the Vice President was surprised why the designation was not for a “drug czar,” as earlier offered by Duterte, but as co-chair of an agency.

“It was the President who raised the appointment. The President has been calling the shots for the past three years and now, out of frustration, she was appointed to a non-existent position. We are not just going to accept it,” he said.

With all the lame excuses being churned out by Leni and her camp, it has become fairly evident that Robredo is not likely to accept the offer to be a co-chair of the inter-agency committee against narcotics, which explains the many excuses being made by her and her camp, the latest of which is that the Vice President is being “set up” to fail with her appointment as co-chair of the agency.

There went her spokesman, saying, “How can we accept the position when it is meaningless? If you look at the executive order creating the committee, the co-chair post is nonexistent,” Gutierrez told a news conference on Tuesday evening. He added that Robredo would be in direct communications with Duterte and list down her comments and suggestions in her claimed help in the government’s war on drugs.

Salvador Panelo, the presidential spokesman, pointed out that Gutierrez was wrong, stressing that the President has the “continuing authority to reorganize the bureaucracy,” so there was no need to amend the executive order to create a position for Robredo on the inter-agency committee.

It should be easy enough for one to either accept or reject the offer of an appointment as Duterte’s drug czarina, but Leni and her yellows don’t want to appear that she is shying away from the challenge offered.

The way it looks, if Leni accepts the job, she knows she will fail, and fail miserably because the truth is, she can’t handle the drug problem in the country, since she has neither the experience to tackle such a job, nor, for that matter, does she have any knowledge in the handling of the many problems that come with her heading such multi-agencies.

Leni and her camp are now trying to get out of the formal offer without her losing face, which is why she is said to issue a statement to lay out her position on the drug war and how the drug war is to be addressed.

Leni’s way to get out of the mess she herself has created by criticizing the way Duterte is conducting his war on drugs is for her to lay out how the drug war is to be addressed, which is meaningless, since such a position would just be on paper, which can hardly be the gauge of the success or failure of the drug war under her command.

Still, if what she claims is her position on the handling of the drug war, then she should accept the offer to head the inter-agency commission against illegal drugs and put into practice how she claims the drug war should be handled.

Duterte hardly needs position papers — especially from the vice president — to wage his war on drugs. He and his agencies, despite the yellow criticism, as well as their inflated death figures, have been able to reduce the flow of illegal drugs in this country. If Leni takes on the job the illegal drug trade is bound to worsen and she and her yellows certainly know that she would fail at the job and be blamed for the rise in drug-related criminality.

The next time around, Leni should just keep her mouth shut instead of offering too many excuses.

There is only the choice of accepting or rejecting the position and Leni knows she is at the losing end, since she is bound to fail if she as much as takes on the job.