MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo clapped back at President Rodrigo Duterte and law enforcement agencies for lashing out at her over the failing grade she gave the war on drugs, pointing out that the data she used in her report came from the government.

On Wednesday, January 8, Robredo defended her findings and recommendations to improve Duterte’s bloody drug war, which she publicized in her report as former Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) co-chair.

“So kapag tiningnan ‘nyo iyong buong report, talagang iyong mga data na ginamit namin, from the agencies. Kapag sinabi nila na mali iyong data ko, eh galing iyon sa kanila,” Robredo said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

(If you look at the report as a whole, the data we used really came from the agencies. They’re saying my data is wrong, but the numbers came from them.)

Citing data given to her during her brief time in the ICAD, the Vice President gave a “1 over 100” score to the anti-drug campaign because authorities were able to recover only 1% of the total shabu being consumed nationwide and were able to seize just 1% of the dirty drug money being circulated across the country.

Robredo primarily used numbers given to her by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and the Dangerous Drugs Board. 

The Vice President’s scalding report angered Duterte, who called her election a “colossal blunder” and refused to consider Robredo’s suggestions to reform the war on drugs.

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, who was forced to be ICAD co-chairs with Robredo for 18 days last year, said the Vice President’s report was “a mere political attack.” PNP officer-in-charge Lieutenant General Archie Gamboa also said her comparison of the figures was “not even mathematically acceptable.”

Robredo said that if the numbers she received from the PNP were wrong as some critics have said, then the PDEA – which is part of the ICAD along with the police – should have corrected them.

“Pero huwag ako iyong sabihan nila. Ang sabihan nila iyong PNP, kasi hindi namin imbento iyong data. Iyong data, galing sa kanila. So baka mas mabuti, mag-usap-usap muna sila. Ano ba talaga?” Robredo said.

(They shouldn’t be talking to me. They should be correcting the PNP, because we didn’t invent the data. The data came from them. So perhaps it would be better if they talk among themselves first. What’s the real deal here?)

University of the Philippines statistics professor Peter Cayton told Rappler that Robredo’s computations and comparisons were correct. He said the Vice President’s ICAD report would be wrong only if the data she received from the Duterte administration was faulty in the first place. – Rappler.com