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[av_heading heading=’DEAR PRESIDENT RODY… | * Beleaguered Mabilog to write Duterte | * City mayor mentioned anew in Palace dinner ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila Reporter
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Thursday, March 16, 2017
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MANILA – During a dinner meeting with the Senate’s majority bloc in Malacañang, President Rodrigo Duterte stepped up his illegal drugs accusation against Iloilo City’s Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, a cousin of Sen. Franklin Drilon.
Drilon, a member of the Senate minority bloc, was not at the dinner on Tuesday night.
“I will write him a letter,” Mabilog told Panay News yesterday.
Alarmed by the repeated allegation that he is an illegal drugs protector, Mabilog said he will clear his name and that he will send his letter to the President “as soon as possible.”
Tuesday night was the fifth time Duterte accused Mabilog of being a drug coddler. It was made just a day after he reiterated the same during a press briefing in the Palace on Monday night.
The President, however, has not offered any evidence and the Iloilo City mayor has not been charged with anything criminally or administratively related to illegal drugs.
Fifteen senators attended Tuesday night’s Malacañang dinner. Senators Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito and Richard Gordon told Panay News Duterte also told them Mabilog was a cousin of slain suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta.
Duterte got it wrong, Mabilog said.
“I am in no way related to Odicta. Not at all. Indi gid ako relative maski distant pa,” he stressed.
Odicta, a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-identified drug lord in Western Visayas, was shot to death by still unidentified gunmen in Aug. 29, 2016 – three weeks after Duterte first tagged Mabilog a drug coddler in Aug. 7.
Mabilog declined to disclose what his letter to the President will specifically contain.
“Please give me time to prepare it, including the contents,” he told Panay News.
The President repeated his August accusation against Mabilog on Jan. 11, 2017 during a meeting with the country’s mayors in Malacañang; on Feb. 24 during a speech in Davao del Norte; and just this March13 during a press briefing with congressional leaders in Malacañang.
“My heart bleeds for so many Filipinos who are out of their minds, cannot function anymore and have practically destroyed our society. Just like the other side diyan sa Western (Visayas), si Odicta, cousin iyan ni Mabilog, mayor ng (Iloilo City),” Duterte said on Monday.
On Tuesday during the regular session of the Iloilo City Council, Mabilog ally Councilor Eduardo Peñaredondo said the city government’s – and Mabilog’s – efforts against illegal drugs may not have reached the President’s attention.
He suggested to colleagues that they furnish the Office of the President with, among others, city ordinances, SP resolutions, city government memorandums of agreement, programs and projects related to the campaign against drug trafficking.
Councilor Joshua Alim, however, has a different take on Duterte’s repeated accusation against Mabilog.
“I can sense something, a link,” said Alim, “nga-a s’ya gid ang paborito. Bal-an niyo naman seguro. I will not name names. But we have to do something.”
Alim said, “Mayor Jed nagaobra sang tanan but he is always a collateral damage of everything because may tuyo gid ya ang President nga kon sin-o,” said Alim.
On Feb. 24, during a speech in Davao del Norte, the President said, “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./PN
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