ILOILO City – “Gatinikal sya.” Making tall tales.
This was how a lawyer dismissed his disgruntled friend, former activist-turned-military whistleblower Jeffrey Celiz’s allegations against him, other people and several cause-oriented groups.
“Ako naham-ot kay Jepoy. Gatinikal sya,” says Atty. Jobert Pahilga. 
“I was part of the government project para lansagin ang sindikato ng droga sa Iloilo,” says Jeffrey Celiz.
Celiz tagged Atty. Jobert Pahilga, founding member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, a recruiter of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) after the lawyer brushed him off as a desperate man “afraid to be a victim of extrajudicial killing under President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s anti-drug war” and thus would do anything to survive such as allowing himself to be used by the military for red-tagging activists.
“Ako naham-ot kay Jepoy. Gatinikal sya. Basi nagbuang-buang na ina sya,” Pahilga said over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo yesterday.
Aside from Pahilga, Celiz also tagged as CPP recruiters Atty. Pet Melliza, currently working at the Iloilo provincial government’s legal office, and activist Reyland Vergara, secretary-general of human rights alliance Karapatan-Panay.
Celiz further accused them of harassing his family after he came out as a covert operative of the government’s National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).
“Accusation is not synonymous to proof. If you are the accuser, you should show your evidence. Kon wala ebidensya, linapot na,” said Pahilga who said he and Celiz were fellow student-activists in college.
According to the lawyer, he is currently abroad so how could he harass Celiz’s family.
Pahilga, however, admitted sharing a Facebook post where Celiz’s wife was supposedly showing off luxury items such as a car, designer bags, a motorcycle, and pieces of jewelry, and another post showing Celiz with a high-powered firearm.
In those posts, according to Pahilga, the original uploader asked where Celiz got the money to buy those things.
In the Bombo Radyo interview, Pahilga further said, “(A) question (for you) Mr. Celiz: 2015 ara ka na kay Odicta and you admitted that because you are now saying it was part of your job as a covert operative of NICA… So you mean to say you’re the one nga nagpapatay sa mag-asawa nga Odicta?”
Pahilga was referring to suspected drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr. who was shot to death with his wife Meriam by unidentified armed men in Malay, Aklan in 2016.
The twin murders are not yet solved.
“Napatay sila Aug. 29, 2016 sa Caticlan jetty port and you’re claiming to be a covert operative of NICA. What is your role in the killing of the spouses?” asked Pahilga.
The lawyer also brought up the inclusion to the government narco-list of then mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who, for a time, appointed Celiz his executive assistant and spokesperson.
“You are, for the longest time, his spokesperson and trusted political adviser. Do you mean to say ikaw man nagpakanulo kay Mayor Mabilog?” asked Pahilga.
The lawyer said Celiz was courting his own problems.
“Abyan Jepoy, migo ta ka, naluoy ako sa imo. Kon nahimunong ka na lang tani, waay ka pa naka-abot sa amo sina nga problema. Instead of making your life peaceful, you’re making it miserable. You’re making fantastic stories. No one believes you. The people of Iloilo know you, that you are there working at city hall from 2010 until 2016,” said Pahilga.
“Pati sila ni Angel Locsin nga wala kalabot-labot, napangwakal mo para masalbar mo ang imo kabuhi. I understand that your life is in danger but not because of the CPP, I suppose, but because of what you are doing,” he added.
Celiz appeared in a Senate inquiry on Nov. 4 as former New People’s Army (NPA) rebel Ka Eric Almedras and backed up Major General Antonio Parlade Jr.’s claim that a sister of actress Angel Locsin was a rebel. He also accused several party-list groups as fronts of the CPP.
Parlade is the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Southern Luzon Command.
In a separate Facebook post, Pahilga noted that after President Duterte linked him to illegal drugs in Iloilo City, “Celiz suddenly disappeared from public view while Mayor Mabilog fled abroad.”
“Now Mr. Celiz reappeared suddenly as star witness of General Parlade. Mr. Celiz is claiming that he is doing all of this to redeem himself. But facts do not lie,” according to Pahilga.
He asked: “Why only now, abyan Jepoy? Since 2008, when he ‘surrendered’ to (then Justice) Secretary (Raul) Gonzalez (Sr), he could have already spilled the beans against the persons he is red-tagging now. He did not. Why only now at the time of Duterte?”
Pahilga believed Celiz “is afraid to be a victim of extrajudicial killing under President Duterte’s anti-drug war. He felt he is not safe anymore. Spouses Odicta were killed. Mayor Mabilog fled. No one can protect him or offer sanctuary to him anymore.”
“My view is that Mr. Celiz sought the protection of the military in 2017 by ‘selling’ to them his supposed ‘extensive’ knowledge of the operation of the Left. He lied to the military in exchange for protection,” according to Pahilga./PN
