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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Tuesday, September 5, 2017
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MANILA – Is President Rodrigo Duterte being fed with the wrong information about Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog of Iloilo City?
In a speech during the 41st birthday celebration of Davao’s Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles on Sunday, Duterte said Mabilog, whom he has repeatedly accused of being a drug protector, “escaped to Japan and living luxuriously there.”
The President mentioned Mabilog as he was defending his administration’s war on drugs from criticisms that only the poor were being target.
“They’ll say, ‘Those are only the poor.’ But the poor are the ones who will distribute. It’s not the drug lords who will do that because they’re already very rich, just like Mabilog who has escaped to Japan and living luxuriously there,” said the President.
Mabilog is actually in Japan attending a conference on disaster management, according to his spokesperson, Atty. Mark Piad.
The conference is organized by Citynet Yokohama Project Office, a regional network of local authorities committed to helping local governments improve the sustainability of human settlements.
Mabilog is attending the conference with two department heads of the Iloilo City government – Dona Rose Magno, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office; and Jeck Conlu, chief of the Iloilo city Urban Poor Affairs Office.
The mayor left Iloilo City for Japan on Aug. 30 on same day Duterte dubbed the mayor’s residential house along the Iloilo Esplanade in Molo district as “like a palace.”
Still during his Sunday speech, Duterte again took pot shots at Mabilog’s residence, claiming it’s grander than Malacañang Palace but built with drug money.
“(Malacañang is) not really a palace, honestly. It was just varnished well and the floors…does not resemble any… Mayor Mabilog’s house is more grandiose, a palace. It was because of drugs,” said the President.
He added: “Where else would he get the money from, his business?”
According to the mayor’s staff, Mabilog is set to return to Iloilo today or on tomorrow.
Sunday was not the first time the President made an erroneous assertion about Mabilog. In January during a meeting with mayors in Malacañang, he mentioned the city mayor as a relative of slain suspected Iloilo City drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.
He repeated this in a speech before the League of Government Prosecutors in April.
“And the Odicta couple, ‘yung pinsan ni Mabilog. ‘Yun sinabi ko sa inyo na pinaka. ‘Yung sabagay pinaka ‘yun lang,” Duterte said, referring to his previous statement that Iloilo was the “most shabu-lized” in the country.
Mabilog denied being related by blood or affinity to the Odictas.
Odicta and wife were shot to death by still unidentified assassins last Aug. 29, 2016 in Malay, Aklan three weeks after the President tagged Mabilog a drug coddler.
Mabilog has vehemently denied being a drug protector, pusher or user. He issued a statement on Aug. 30 following Duterte’s order of a lifestyle check on him.
Here’s the mayor’s statement in full:
“I have nothing to hide. My house, while often described as a palace, is not quite a palace. The land or compound on which our circa 1800s ancestral home stands was inherited and the house was built on a more or less 200-square meter portion. It is not as big as pictures would make it appear. Last year, I opened our doors to the local media for them to see the inside.
“Modesty aside, I and my wife were already running a number of businesses before I joined politics. I was already living a comfortable life in Manila as an entrepreneur when I came home to run for city councilor. I didn’t become rich because of politics, much unlike many politicians.
“My wife had to make huge sacrifices working in Canada for many years, while at the same time making wise investments that were reported in her income tax returns.
“Everybody dreams of building a beautiful home. Marivic and I built one not only for ourselves but for our children. And I had hoped to plant seeds of inspiration among Ilonggos that through hard work, they, too, like Jed Mabilog, can achieve their dreams.
“I just feel sad that what I had hoped to be a dream home has caused a nightmare experience for me and my family. But I can assure the President not a single centavo of dirty money was spent for this home.”/PN
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