President Duterte just hit on a great idea. Fed up with the constant snipings of Vice President Leni Robredo on just about any of his policies, he now wants her to take over his controversial war on illegal drugs. As supervision and control of the drug war is an executive function, it is possible there is no legal impediment for Duterte to do exactly as he said.
My suspicion, though, is that it is just another of the president's frequent outbursts. Duterte may rave and rant and then settle back down to where he was before somebody ruffled his feathers. And then it will be up to presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo to tweak and spin the outburst into something manageable.
I think that is the way this thing is going. Duterte is not going to give up his drug war, at least not to just anyone. He is going to finish it or die trying. His methods might not be to the liking of some. But he is not into it either like it was some hotshot popularity contest. So that sort of evens things out. Where it really matters is in the tacit approval of people. What they say in public is not what they hold in silence.
Deep inside, most Filipinos approve of the drug war. Illegal drugs have become such a terrible threat they are left with no choice. Either they look the other way when it comes to Duterte's way of leading the war, or face a future where the country gets eaten up by the menace. There is no kid's glove approach to such a problem. Anybody who says otherwise is either nuts or has an entirely different agenda to peddle. With drugs, it is what it is.
But I do would love to see Leni Robredo take over the drug war as Duterte threatened to have her do, just to see the stuff of which she has constantly made people believe with her constant sniping against Duterte's policies. It is not bad to criticize. It makes for a healthy exchange of ideas. But there are two ways to criticize.
If Robredo had wanted to criticize positively, perhaps to convince Duterte that he is not doing things correctly and that she has a better way, then all she has to do is see him, maybe even just call him. She is, for God's sake, the vice president. Duterte will be compelled to listen even if, eventually, he will not change his mind.
But if Robredo just calls for a press conference or otherwise talks to the media first and lets Duterte get it from what he reads or hears, then that is negative criticism. It is meant to generate nothing else but a bad press for Duterte. In all likelihood, it is meant to generate political points for herself at Duterte's expense.
Letting Robredo lead the drug war would allow her to put her money where her mouth is. But as said earlier, Duterte is so committed to ridding the country of the menace he is not about to jeopardize what he has started just because some woman squawking got him all hot behind the ears. He just let off some steam. I do hope, however, that Duterte's threat did not make somebody pee in the pants. jerrytundag@yahoo.com