Duterte fires Philippine vice-president Leni Robredo from anti-drugs tsar post after just 3 weeks
- Robredo had vowed to reform the president’s deadly narcotics war amid allegations that police are committing crimes against humanity
- But Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo on Sunday announced her dismissal and said Robredo had ‘embarrassed our country’
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday fired vice-president and arch-critic Leni Robredo from her post as overseer of his deadly drugs war, an aide said, just days after calling her a “scatterbrain” not to be trusted with state secrets.
Robredo, 54, lasted less than three weeks as head of Duterte’s signature anti-narcotics campaign, which she vowed to reform amid allegations that police were committing crimes against humanity in killing thousands of drug suspects.
“The vice-president resorted to unduly baiting international attention on the matter,” Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement announcing Robredo’s immediate dismissal.
“Essentially, what the vice-president has done is to embarrass our country,” Panelo added.
The decision came after Duterte and his political allies publicly criticised Robredo, who had vowed to end “senseless” killing in the drug war after her appointment.
Duterte took issue on Tuesday with Robredo meeting US embassy and United Nations drug experts.