Senate President Vicente Sotto III told Vice President Leni Robredo to stop broadcasting her every moves as the co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
In a radio interview, Sotto said that if he’s an adviser of the Vice President, he would tell the latter to stop ‘media binge’ because he believes that hiding Robredo’s plans is better than announcing it to the press.
“Ang pinakamaganda, tigilan mo muna ang media media kasi nate-telegraph ang strategy. Dapat diyan, submarine approach. Kailangan under the radar ang tira… and then later on, lilitaw ang accomplishment. Hindi yung lilitaw agad ang mga plano at strategy baka walang marating,” Sotto said.
“Wag mo sasabihin sa media. (Kung) intelligence (information) bakit ka nagmemedia? Bakit mo pinamemedia ang meeting? Hindi dapat,” he added.
He then suggested to the Vice President to study her current position.
“Siguro mas maganda ang ginawa ni Vice President Robredo pag-aralang mabuti at i-research mabuti ang iba’t ibang kilos ng agencies. Anu-ano ang mga policy nila. I-research munang mabuti, pag-aralang mabuti ang trabaho,” he said.
The Senate President made the following remarks after PDEA Chief Aaron Aquino announced that Robredo is asking for the list of high-value targets.
“Meron atang hinihingi na lists. One example ‘yung list ng high-value targets. So I think, nag-iisip naman ako bakit kailangan niya in the first place. Wala naman sa mandates namin ‘yun, na kailangan kumuha ng listahan ng high-value targets,” he said in a phone interview.
Aquino said that they’re only going to share the list in a closed-door meeting.
“Sa pinaka simpleng explanation – kapag binigay namin ang listahan kay VP Robredo hindi na namin alam kung sino-sino ang magkakaroon ng access sa listahan,” Aquino said.
The PDEA chief said that even himself doesn’t have any copy of the list of high-value targets.
As a response, Robredo said that she made the request in private and didn’t announce it publicly.
“Hindi nga namin ini-announce sa media na humihingi kami nito. Nasa private communication ito, copy furnished iyong mga law enforcement agencies para magkaroon kami ng maayos na database. Imbes na sagutin tayo, sagutin iyong ating sulat, sumagot sa media,” Robredo said.