DAVAO CITY-— President Rodrigo Deterte fired Vice President Leonora ‘Leni’ Robredo as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Sunday nigh confirmed the report.
Robredo enjoyed the ICAD post for only two weeks.
During a media interview on Saturday night Duterte said he does not trust Robredo.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
“Public office is — let me characterize everything — public office is a very honorable thing but politics, well, everywhere is always dirty.
So ‘yung pagka-Bise Presidente mo, it’s noble, and I’m happy that you are there kasi kilala ko ‘yung asawa mo, hindi ikaw. Magkasama kami, remember? During the time of the election of President Aquino? Robredo was a Cabinet member and also — I think she was manager of the campaign.
So magkakilala kami in respect for her. Pero ‘yung politics, ‘yung what you say everything even if it is I said by design or negligence, somebody is going to fish it from your mouth and use it during election time.
Alam mo sa election time, magkababa — pati nga ang mga network eh sumama sa babuyan. Ganyan, it’s a garbage. And even the networks really were into garbage, ‘yung billion-billion. Eh tignan mo pala — if you have time I can…
If you want — anybody who is interested could always go to me and tell me — tell me publicly and I will ask the Central Bank governor to open everybody’s account, my account, your account, lahat ng Pilipino na may bangkong — pera sa bangko.
yan sa Central Bank. It is the central — kumbaga simply stated is simply the central recorder of all deposits of all Filipinos in the different banks.
When the President was asked : Kung ayaw niyo na daw po sa kanya sabihin niyo lang daw po?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Hindi ako — ayaw ko sa kanya. Sinabi ko lang, I cannot trust her. Kasi hindi kami magka — kung sabihin mo sa trabaho lang, kung trabaho ka lang diyan, well, she would be asking ano…
Ganito ‘yan eh. She would be asking for the job description. It’s there in the law, it’s there in the executive order creating itong ICAD, ICAD o ICAD. Nandiyan ‘yan. So basahin lang niya ‘yan, it’s all there and that is where she would really exercise ‘yung — kung meron.
Pero kung sabihin mo na she will ask the paper, examine and all of these things, so there is what you would call the need to know. Is there a need for you, Leni, to know everything? I don’t think it’s good.