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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA and PRINCE GOLEZ
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Saturday, September 30, 2017
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ILOILO City – Today is the last day of Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog’s 20-day sick leave that started on Sept. 11. Will he be coming back?
“I am waiting for his response,” said Mabilog’s spokesperson Atty. Mark Piad when asked yesterday about the mayor’s whereabouts.
Mabilog left the country on Aug. 31 for conferences in Japan and Malaysia. While abroad, he filed for a sick leave.
Piad told Panay News yesterday he was waiting for confirmation – via internet chat – from Mabilog himself when the city mayor would be coming back.
According to the mayor’s spokesperson, the last time he had communicated with Mabilog was on Sept. 25 when the city’s chief executive instructed him to file a motion for reconsideration on the Office of the Ombudsman decision finding him liable of violating Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) over a deal that the city government had with a private towing services company.
Piad said his contact with Mabilog was “very limited.”
“We understand his situation. Nagapaayo sia. We want him to recuperate,” he stressed.
But one is sure, said Piad: Mabilog will definitely return to finish his term until 2019.
Piad previously said he had no idea of Mabilog’s exact whereabouts abroad but that the mayor told him he was seeking treatment for diabetes mellitus type 2.
The illness was probably triggered by stress, among others, said Piad.
President Rodrigo Duterte has accused Mabilog of being a drug protector, an allegation that the city mayor vehemently denied.
Well-meaning friends have been urging Mabilog to take a leave of absence or vacation while the situation is “still very hot.”
In a rare interview with Mabilog’s wife Maria Victoria early this month, the city’s first lady confirmed she and her two children left the Philippines, too, because they feared for their safety.
“Although it pains me to disclose that I brought the children out of the country because it could imperil their security, I am confirming that we are abroad,” she told Panay News through the internet.
Mrs. Mabilog, a Canadian citizen, begged off from disclosing their location.
Just this Tuesday night during a speech at the 120th founding anniversary of the Department of Justice, Duterte called Mayor Mabilog a fool.
“Ito si Mabilog, sumibat na ang loko-loko,” said the President.
Malacañang revealed Mayor Mabilog and his wife left the country for Narita, Japan on the same day, Aug. 31, but took separate flights.
“The safety of my kids is paramount amid this chaos and real threat,” according to Mrs. Mabilog.
In a separate speech earlier on Tuesday, Duterte repeated his August 2016 claim that Mabilog, now serving his third and last term, is a drug coddler.
“Si Mabilog, the mayor of Iloilo (City), I said, ‘You are a God damn protector,’” the President said during the 56th anniversary of the Philippine Constitution Association. “Hindi ko sinasabi nagluluto siya. He was correct. He was not producing drugs.”
A day before leaving for Japan, Mabilog told city hall employees in a speech, “With God as my witness, I have never protected anyone, especially in illegal drugs. Never. I will never do that.”
He shot down resignation as an option amid the continuing accusation of the President.
“Mahapos lang tani para sa akon, pwede na lang ko tani maka-resign para magtawhay na lang ang aton nga syudad para…I don’t know kun ano matabo,” he said. “(But) I have the mandate of the Ilonggos to serve as mayor until 2019.”
He will stay because, he said, “first and foremost I have never protected anyone in illegal drugs or even in any form of criminality.”/PN
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