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BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila and GLENDA SOLOGASTOA, Iloilo City
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Saturday, February 25, 2017
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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte once again linked Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to the illegal drug trade.
In a speech during the turnover of a drug rehabilitation facility in Davao del Norte yesterday, Duterte claimed that 6,000 police officers and 32 town mayors are leading drug operations in the Philippines.
Showing a list allegedly containing names of “narco-politicians,” Duterte singled out Mabilog, whom he first tagged to the illicit trade in August last year.
“Naay mayor ug mga syudad. Ang usa diha ig-agaw ni Drilon, si Mayor Mabilog sa Iloilo City, ug daghan pa (The list also contains names of city mayors. One of them is the cousin of Drilon, Mayor Mabilog of Iloilo City, and many others),” the President said.
Mabilog is a second cousin of Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon.
Panay News tried to reach Mabilog for comment, but the mayor was not answering phone calls.
“No comment for now,” Atty. Mark Piad, spokesperson for Mabilog, told Panay News in a text message last night. “Mayor will just issue official statement.”
In the expletive-riddled speech, the President further claimed that 40,000 of the 100,000 barangay captains are involved in the drug trade.
On Aug. 7 last year, Duterte named Mabilog and several other Iloilo mayors — Alex Centena, Siegfredo Betita and Mariano Malones of Calinog, Carles and Maasin towns, respectively — as “drug coddlers.”
All four mayors have denied this. “I can categorically say that I am not involved in the protection, trade and use of illegal drugs,” Mabilog said.
In a Jan. 11 meeting with mayors in Malacañang, Duterte also singled out Mabilog, calling him a relative of suspected Iloilo City drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.
“Nagsalâ sia. Hambal ya kamag-anak ni Mayor Jed si Odicta (He got it wrong. He said Mayor Jed was a relative of Odicta),” a mayor from the 2nd District of Iloilo earlier told Panay News, wondering if Duterte was given erroneous intelligence information.
Mabilog confirmed this. “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),” he said.
Nevertheless Mabilog said it was “important to prove to the President that the information he has on me is not true.”
An Interior department task force is looking into former and incumbent local government officials with alleged link to drugs. Mabilog had said he is hoping the investigation will clear his name.
Sources told Panay News he was reportedly cleared by the Police Regional Office 6, but no one from the law enforcement — not even the director, Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles — would confirm this.
Drilon already defended Mabilog. “Wala pong pruwebang ipinakita na si (There is no proof that) Mayor Mabilog ay involved sa droga,” the senator said.
“With the social media today, kung sasabihin mong ang tao ay may pagkukulang lalo na sa ganitong maselan na bagay, sana naman may matibay na ebidensya,” Drilon told Metro Manila journalists.
While he acknowledged the country’s problem on illegal drugs, Drilon said killing drug suspects will not solve it. “It’s a question of what kind of policies or remedy should be adopted to solve this problem.”/PN
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