(Eagle News) — Apologize.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption has asked Vice President Leni Robredo to issue an apology for what it said were her “treacherous and unjust statements” in a video shown to the international community recently.
In a letter sent to her office on Tuesday, Dante Jimenez, VACC president and founding chair, said Robredo should apologize for her messages that “sham(ed) the country before the international community” to “forestall any legal action that may be taken against” her.
Jimenez was referring to the scathing criticisms made by Robredo of Duterte’s drug war in an almost-six-minute video shown in an event organized by a nongovernment organization.
The event–conducted by the NGO that is against drug wars in general—was held on the sidelines of a main UN event in Vienna, Austria.
In the almost-six-minute video, she said the drug war, which had left “more than 7000 killed in summary executions,” had left the “people hopeless and helpless.”
She also noted the “palit-ulo scheme,” which she said saw relatives of a drug suspect being arrested if he or she was not found by the police at home.
The Philippine National Police has denied Robredo’s version of the scheme.
According to Jimenez, Robredo’s statement about those supposedly killed in summary executions was “unfounded, biased and unverified.”
He noted that her “portrayal of ‘palit-ulo’ was slanted to destroy the image of the police and other law enforcement agencies in the campaign against illegal drugs.”
“It was sadly unpatriotic and unFilipino to the point of betrayal of public trust,” he said.
“In view of these serious pronouncements, before a UN forum, and using the Office of the Vice President to issue a personal analysis of the war against criminality and drugs by the Philippine government headed by the President, we believe…that this personal statement by the Vice President without verified facts and figures must be corrected in a manner that is factual and devoid of the bias of politics,” Jimenez added.
