(Clarifies Robredo is vice president in paragraph 11)
* Government says offer to Robredo is genuine
* She has criticised mass killings linked to drugs war
* Her spokesman calls offer 'theatre'
* Says Robredo to make recommendations to Duterte
* United Nations to investigate killings
By Martin Petty and Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte has named his main political rival as his "drugs tsar"
after she criticised the high death toll his anti-narcotics
campaign has caused, but her camp dismissed the offer as a
gimmick.
His spokesman on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Leni
Robredo as co-chair of an inter-agency panel on drugs and
ordered all other agencies to give her their full support.
"If she has been criticising the drug war as ineffective,
then there must be ideas on her mind to make it effective,"
presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said on television.
Human rights groups say Duterte's crackdown had led to
systematic executions and police cover-ups. Police reject that
and say the nearly 7,000 people they have killed were armed drug
suspects who resisted arrest.
Robredo advocates tackling drugs from a health and social
perspective, including prevention and treatment rather than a
largely police-centred approach.
The offer to her followed critical remarks she made about
the crackdown in an interview with Reuters and subsequently,
angering Duterte and triggering a torrent of abuse against her
on social media for speaking out against him. The president remains hugely popular among Filipinos, with
an approval rating of more than 80%.
Robredo's spokesman, Barry Gutierrez, said she was being
offered a post that did not exist, describing the gesture as
"theatre".
"They should have a serious offer, not the one, in its face,
that does not have much content, has questionable legality and
part of the ongoing drama," Gutierrez told reporters.
Robredo would respond herself on Wednesday and present
recommendations to Duterte on how the drugs war should be
handled, her spokesman added.
Robredo is also the country's the vice president, elected
separately to Duterte, but she has no role in his administration
and her party has little power or influence.
DRUG WAR 'FAILURE'
Allies of the president urged Robredo to take the post, and
the Dangerous Drugs Board and police said they welcomed her
ideas and perspectives.
Political analyst Ramon Casiple said she was not really in a
position to decline.
"There's the obligation, not just a personal decision. If
you were elected and the president sought for help, you will
(respond)," he said.
Gutierrez said Robredo was ready to help if Duterte was
genuinely asking for it, but his drugs war "clearly has been a
failure on several levels" and Duterte was attempting to pass
those failures to the vice president.
Activists say police are operating with impunity, with the
implied support of a president who once vowed to kill 100,000
dealers, and said he would be happy to slaughter millions of
addicts. He has since said he uses hyperbole to stress a point
and denies inciting murder.
Estimates of the number killed during the drugs war vary
significantly, but thousands of users and alleged dealers have
wound up dead outside of official police operations, many in
mysterious circumstances.
Robredo on Oct. 23 told Reuters that international help,
including from the United Nations and ICC, should be sought if
the government refused to change tack and stop abusive police.
On Duterte's approach, she said: "Obviously, it's not working."
Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana of the Philippine Commission on
Human Rights was hopeful Robredo could stop the killings.
"Are we going to look at addicts as victims?" she said. "The
approach would not be to kill them but to rehabilitate them."
Duterte reacted with fury to a resolution by the U.N. Human
Rights Council to investigate the killings, and responded to a
preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court
(ICC) by pulling the Philippines out of the organisation.