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BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO and PRINCE GOLEZ
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Friday, February 23, 2018
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ILOILO – “If (you) are really involved in illegal drugs, then I’m sorry. PDP cannot help you.” So said President Rodrigo Duterte.
According to the President, he has no idea that two Iloilo mayors he tagged as drug protectors in 2016 joined his political party.
“I don’t know,” the President told reporters in Sara, Iloilo where he visited the wake of slain overseas Ilongga domestic helper Joanna Daniela Demafelis yesterday.
Calinog’s Mayor Alex Centena and Maasin’s Mayor Mariano Malones took their oath as new members of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) on Jan. 18 in Pototan town.
“I have to check and we will be fair,” said Duterte.
It was House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, the PDP-Laban secretary general, who administered the oath-taking of Centena and Malones.
“If (you) are really involved in illegal drugs, then I’m sorry. PDP cannot help you,” said Duterte.
But if they were “clean” and were merely “unnecessarily dragged into the web of intrigues, then we can also have a remedy for that,” the President said without elaborating.
Alvarez justified the oath-taking of Centena and Malones last month by saying they were no longer in Duterte’s list of drug protectors.
Aside from Centena and Malones, other Iloilo mayors Duterte tagged as drug protectors in 2016 were Mayor Sigfredo Betita of Carles and Jed Mabilog of Iloilo City. All four of them denied the President’s charge.
October last year, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Mabilog from government service for unexplained wealth.
Yesterday, Duterte reiterated his allegation against Mabilog who is now widely believed to be in Canada.
“Lahat ng impormasyon na pumasok galing Army, Navy, Air Force, police ay nandoon ‘yung pangalan niya, ‘yung si Mabilog. Kita mo, hindi na mauwi ang buang,” he said.
Last October 2017, Malones said a “clearance” from Duterte, not membership to PDP-Laban, was what mattered most to him.
“Is my taking oath as PDP-Laban member enough assurance that the President won’t tag me a drug protector anymore? This is what makes me uneasy. I may be embarrassed once again,” Malones said then.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., who also took his oath as new PDP-Laban member last month, had assured Malones and Centena late last year they were welcome to join the President’s party, citing the statement of the party’s secretary general, Alvarez.
“Happy ako sa good news ni Governor Defensor nga cleared kami,” said Malones then, but he added that a pronouncement from the President would be better.
Malones said he was told that “no one could issue us a clearance because the allegation made against us was merely verbal, there were no documentary proofs.”
Despite the President’s allegation, no charges have been filed against Malones and Centena.
“Tinaga man lang, so sa tinaga man lang kami mabawi eh,” said Malones./PN
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