MANILA - The opposition leader put in charge of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs said on Friday it was time to reassess a campaign that was fraught with senseless killings and had failed to curtail a staggering rise in addiction.
Robredo is a political rival of the popular Duterte and has long been a critic of his flagship campaign, arguing that thousands of urban poor have been killed, with no sign of progress towards dismantling major drugs networks. "It is incumbent upon us to change that thinking. It is probably time that we think about shifting to something that is effective and that no one is killed senselessly."Human rights experts at home and abroad are incensed by thousands of deaths in what police say were sting operations that resulted in shootouts.
Robredo was given the"drugs tsar" post by Duterte after remarks she made about abusive police and the campaign's ineffectiveness, made during an Oct. 23 interview with Reuters, and in subsequent media appearances.