DILG exec slammed for Robredo rant

The camp of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo responded to Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing 3rd’s calling the second top official of the country “nonessential.”

Robredo’s spokesman, lawyer Ibarra Gutierrez, said in his tweet on Thursday that Densing “epitomizes the [administration’s] Covid response.”

“With cases rising, hospitals full, millions struggling, instead of doing real work, he makes ‘jokes,’ plays politics, bashes someone who’s actually doing the job they’re supposed to do,” said Gutierrez.

“’This is not only ‘nonessential.’ This is a burden,” Ibarra said of Densing.

Densing clarified his controversial “lugaw” (rice porridge) remark was a “joke” but added that he was “serious” about saying Robredo was “nonessential” for spewing “unfounded criticism” over the national coronavirus response.

Densing’s calling the vice president “lugaw” in an interview on Wednesday went viral in social media. He was explaining the legal aspect of an incident, where a rider was blocked from delivering lugaw, when he inserted the critical comment against Robredo.

Barangay watchmen said lugaw was nonessential but the recipient — a woman — argued it was essential.

Meanwhile, Palace spokesman Harry Roque reiterated: “Rice porridge — or any food item for that matter — is considered an essential good. Delivery of food items must remain unhampered 24/7. Let us not block them at checkpoints.”

Her critics associate Robredo with lugaw, which was served by her supporters to the masses during her 2016 vice presidential campaign.