[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Jed mulls legal action vs drug suspect; Palace doubtful on Serenio allegation ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA and PRINCE GOLEZ
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=’18’ font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – When he returns from an extended sick leave abroad, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog may seek legal action against a self-confessed bag man of the Negros Occidental-based Beria drug group that tagged him an illegal drug protector.
According to Mabilog’s spokesperson Atty. Mark Piad, Rick Serenio’s allegation was “a product of an imaginative moron.”
Mabilog’s sick leave ends on Oct. 30. He was seeking treatment for diabetes, said Piad.
Aside from Mabilog, Serenio also accused Sen. Franklin Drilon and former Interior and Local Government secretary Mar Roxas of being protectors of slain suspected drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr. of Barangay Malipayon, this city.
Malacañang also cast doubt on Serenio’s allegation.
“Antayin na lang natin na may talagang dumating kaganapan ng panahon,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella during a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday, “Para makita natin kung talaga namang may laman ‘yang sinasabing ‘yan.”
The President tagged Mabilog a drug coddler in Aug. 7 last year. Three weeks after, on Aug. 29, Odicta was shot to death by unidentified gunmen in Malay, Aklan.
Drilon could not be reached for comment as of this writing. Roxas, on the other hand, dismissed the accusation as “fake news.”
“Such allegations are incredible and without factual basis,” Piad told Panay News.
He further described Serenio’s claim as “absurd” and “fake news”, too.
Roxas, meanwhile, said the timing of Serenio’s allegation was suspect.
“I heard President Duterte is visiting Negros this weekend. This is an attempt by mga local KSP (kulang sa pansin) to get his attention and curry favor with him,” said Roxas in a statement released on Sunday.
Duterte was in Bacolod City on Sunday. He graced the MassKara Festival.
“I don’t know nor have I any dealings with Serenio or Odicta; as in zero,” said Roxas whom Mabilog and Drilon supported for president in the 2016 national elections.
“I have been and am anti-illegal drugs and the record of arrests, confiscations and buy-bust operations by the Philippine National Police during my time at the Department of Interior and Local Government will show this,” said Roxas./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
