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[av_heading heading=’Mabilog reaffirms support to Duterte’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Wednesday, March 1, 2017
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MANILA – Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s insistence that Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog is involved in illegal drugs, the city’s chief executive said he remains supportive of the government’s campaign against drug trafficking, corruption and criminality.
“I have never been and never will be into illegal drugs as user, seller or even protector of drug personalities,” Mabilog told Panay News in an exclusive interview four days after the President named and shamed him again during speech in Davao City.
The city mayor, a Liberal Party member serving his third and last term, said he has fully cooperated in every aspect of the investigation on him.
He will continue to submit himself for investigation over his supposed drug links, he added.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, Mabilog joined a rally of Duterte supporters at the Freedom Grandstand of Iloilo City to mark the EDSA People Power Revolution. He reiterated his support to the President’s campaign to change the form of government of federal.
Since his first stint as mayor in 2010, Mabilog said the city government has been supportive of the anti-illegal drug efforts of local police.
“The Iloilo City Peace and Order Council and Anti-Drug Abuse Council, with the regional PDEA and police, and the City DILG as secretariat, have been holding regular quarterly meetings that include the anti-illegal drug programs which are thoroughly discussed, seriously planned, and well-implemented,” said Mabilog.
He boasted the “significant improvement” in his efforts to combat drug trafficking in the city, citing “enhanced and much stronger programs” that included drug treatment facilities in all seven districts of the city.
The President first linked Mabilog to illegal drugs as protector in an Aug. 7, 2016 speech in Davao City.
Aside from Mabilog, the President also named mayors Siegfredo Betita of Carles, Alex Centena of Calinog and Marciano Malones of Maasin in his Aug. 7 speech.
Days after that, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) created Task Force Agila to investigate Mabilog and other local chief executives.
The President reiterated his assertion against Mabilog on Jan. 11 during a meeting with mayors in Malacañang, and on Feb. 24 just weeks after it was reported that the mayor’s name was not in the Police Regional Office 6’s (PRO-6) validated list of drug personalities in Western Visayas.
According to a source who asked for anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the matter, the regional police director, Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, himself spoke with Mabilog about the validated list.
According to an aide of Mabilog, the mayor was “very happy.”/PN
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