MANILA, Philippines — A war different from the campaign against drugs has been started between Vice President Leni Robredo and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, one where saliva is the only weapon.

After Cayetano said Robredo, who is now co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), was all talk, barely any action on the war on drugs, the Vice President’s camp fired its own volley.

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“If Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano cannot help in the Vice President’s task, he can at least refrain from maligning,” said Barry Gutierrez, Robredo’s spokesperson.

“The Vice President has just started with her job that was passed on to her by the President,” said Gutierrez. “She has not even been in office for a week.”

Gutierrez said the entire government must be united in the campaign against drugs.

“If we are fighting among ourselves this early, the drug lords will rejoice,” he said.

In a previous interview, Cayetano said the government’s “Oplan Tokhang (Knock and Plead)” has become “Operation All Talk” since Robredo took office as ICAD co-chair.

Robredo had suggested that there might be a need to scrap Tokhang, which had become controversial for the killings associated with it.

Robredo accepted her appointment by Duterte to the ICAD last Nov. 6, saying that by playing a key role in the war on drugs, she might be able to stop the killing of innocent people.

Her comments that the war on drugs may have to be reassessed drew the ire of Duterte, who challenged Robredo to do a better job in the anti-drug campaign if she thought she was good. /TSB

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