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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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ILOILO – Mayor Mariano Malones of Maasin, Iloilo has invited President Rodrigo Duterte to grace the municipality’s centennial celebration this July 25.
Will the President accept the invitation?
According to Malones who joined Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) just this January, the President said yes in 2016 yet.
The mayor extended the invitation to the President during their meeting in Davao City some two years ago.
Just this Feb. 12 during the President’s meeting with Visayas and Mindanao mayors in Cebu City Malones said he reminded Duterte about the invitation.
“Gin-remind ko siya, ‘Mr. President I’m Mayor Mariano Malones. Basi nalipat ka of your commitment to visit my municipality.’ Siling ya, ‘Yes I remember. I will visit you.’ So amo na commitment ‘ya sa akon,” said Malones.
But just to make sure the President has not forgotten, Malones again reminded the President about it when the country’s chief executive visited Camp Adriano Hernandez in Dingle, Iloilo on Feb. 22.
Things, however, got a bit complicated. According to the President, he has no idea that two Iloilo mayors he tagged as drug protectors in 2016 joined his political party. He was referring to Malones and Calinog’s Mayor Alex Centena.
“If (you) are really involved in illegal drugs, then I’m sorry. PDP(-Laban) cannot help you,” said the President.
Malones and Centena both vehemently denied being drug protectors.
The mayors took their oath as new PDP-Laban members 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 they were “clean” and were merely “unnecessarily dragged into the web of intrigues, we can 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.
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.
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.
Maasin is a third-class agricultural municipality some 30 kilometers northwest of Iloilo City./PN
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