Philippines' Duterte appoints drug war critic as 'drugs tsar'

By Martin Petty
MANILA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte has appointed his main political rival, Leni Robredo,
his "drugs tsar", after the opposition leader expressed alarm
about the death toll in an anti-narcotics campaign and said it
needed a fresh approach.
The appointment comes after critical remarks by Robredo
during an interview with Reuters, and in subsequent media
appearances, which angered Duterte and prompted a torrent of
fury by his supporters aimed at Robredo, who is his vice
president but has no role in his administration. Duterte's spokesman said the decision to make Robredo a
co-chair of an inter-agency committee against narcotics was
genuine and not a cynical move to discredit her. Robredo had no immediate comment. Her spokesman last week
said Duterte's talk of offering her the job was to make her a
scapegoat for the shortcomings of his anti-drugs campaign.
The war on drugs, Duterte's signature policy, has caused an
international outcry because of the thousands of people killed
in what human rights groups say are systematic executions and
cover-ups by police. Police reject that.
Duterte is furious about a U.N. Human Rights Council
resolution in July to investigate the killings. Last year, he
withdrew his country's membership of the International Criminal
Court (ICC) after it launched a preliminary examination into
alleged crimes against humanity.
"With this development, the palace supposes that detractors
and critics will finally see the sincerity of the president in
making such offer," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said
in a statement, referring to the presidential palace.
He said the decision was made "in the hope that the
government be successful in combating the atrocity caused by the
use and trade of illegal narcotics, regardless of who greatly
contributed to such success".
Activists say police are operating with impunity, and with
tacit support of a president who once said his drugs war would
kill 100,000 people.
Police say they have killed nearly 7,000 drug suspects, who
resisted arrest, but deny involvement in the mysterious murders
of thousands more users.
Robredo on Oct. 23 told Reuters the crackdown had
overwhelmingly targeted the poor and police were being allowed
to abuse their power. She said international help, including
from the United Nations and ICC, should be sought if the
government refused to change tack.
Robredo, who was elected separately to Duterte, said too
many people have been killed, with no evidence of a decline in
the supply or use of drugs.
"We ask ourselves, 'why is this still happening?'. The
president has already made very serious threats to drug
syndicates, to drug lords ... and yet it's still very prevalent,
so obviously, it's not working," she said in the interview.
Panelo said the president had directed all agencies to
support Robredo.
"If she has been criticising the drug war as ineffective,
then there must be ideas on her mind to make it effective,"
Panelo told news channel ANC.