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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Friday January 13, 2017
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ILOILO City – Publicly named and shamed, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has an arduous task – to prove to President Rodrigo Duterte that he is not involved in illegal drugs either as user, pusher or protector of drug traffickers.
Mabilog confirmed yesterday he was again singled out by the President during a meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, contrary to the statement of Ajuy, Iloilo’s Mayor Jett Rojas that no name-shaming happened.
A mayor from the 2nd District of Iloilo had an explanation. He told Panay News he got the sense that Iloilo mayors wanted to spare colleagues from further embarrassment and did not want to talk about the tense Palace meeting with the President. This mayor, however, asked that he be not identified.
“Because I’ve been named, it’s important to prove to the President that the information he had on me is not true,” said Mabilog.
The mayor from the 2nd District wondered if President Duterte was given erroneous intelligence information about Mabilog.
At one point during the Palace meeting, he said, the President mentioned Mabilog as a relative of slain suspected Iloilo City drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.
“Nagsalâ sya. Hambal ‘ya kamag-anak ni Mayor Jed si Odicta (He got it wrong. He said Mayor Jed was a relative of Odicta),” the mayor told Panay News.
Mabilog confirmed his colleague’s statement.
“May ginhambal sya nga paryente ko kuno, which is not true. Indi man kami paryentihanay (He said I’m related to Odicta. This isn’t true. We’re not relatives),” said Mabilog.
The President first named and shamed Mabilog last Aug. 7, 2016 together with three other mayors from Iloilo – Siegfredo Betita of Carles, Alex Centena of Calinog and Mariano Malones of Maasin.
During Wednesday’s Malacañang meeting, the President did not anymore mention the three other Iloilo mayors.
Odicta and wife Meriam 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.
“Ang aton nga effort is 100 percent (in the) campaign against illegal drugs,” said Mabilog in a radio interview yesterday.
The 2nd District mayor told Panay News Duterte also told them he had directed chiefs of police to shoot mayors involved in illegal drugs.
The President also mentioned slain Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and Daanbantayan, Cebu mayor Vicente Loot during Wednesday’s meeting at the Palace.
After he was named in August last year, Mabilog immediately presented himself to the director of the Police Regional Office 6, Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles.
Mabilog reiterated his support to the President’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“I fully understand his determination to defeat the menace. It is very unfortunate and disconcerting that my name is linked and included in the list,” said the mayor.
Mabilog said he was “willing to open myself for any investigation, cooperate and submit myself to any court of law.”
The Department of Interior and Local Government was tasked to investigate Mabilog. It has yet to release the result of its probe.
Mabilog maintained that since he entered government service as a city councilor in 2004, he had kept his honor, integrity and accountability to the public.
“Along with this resolve came numerous awards and recognitions attesting to my determined effort to lead Iloilo City to become a premiere city that it is now. This included my uncompromising stand against illegal drugs. My programs against illegal drugs, since I became Mayor, have always been consistent,” he stressed.
His support to the Iloilo City Police Office and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency was proof that the allegation against him was not true, Mabilog said.
The local chief executive asked for a speedy investigation.
“Since this is an urgent matter which endangers my personal security and that of my family, I request that the authorities conduct a speedy investigation for I, too, wanted the truth and nothing but the truth to come out. It is only fair that since my name has been called out, that I be accorded with the speedy investigation,” said Mabilog./PN
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