BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – Former mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has moved to activate his voting record with the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Mabilog’s taking steps to re-establish his status as a registered voter in Iloilo City is perceived by supporters as an attempt to stay engaged with the political landscape in the city in the 2025 midterm elections.
Interviewed over DYFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo, Jeric Jucaban, counsel for Mabilog, confirmed the former mayor has applied for the reactivation of his voter’s registration with the poll body.
This comes after Mabilog finally returned home about seven years after he went into a self-imposed exile in the United States in 2017 in the wake of allegations of being a narco-politician by then-president Rodrigo Duterte. The former city official had vehemently denied the charges.
Jucaban also said the Comelec will schedule the hearing of Mabilog’s petition to reactivate his voting record.
Election Assistant Jonathan Sayno of Comelec-Iloilo City confirmed that they deactivated the voting record of Mabilog after he failed to participate in three successive elections in 2019 (midterm), 2022 (presidential), and 2023 (youth and barangay).
Section 27 of the Republic Act 8189, or the Voter’s Registration Act of 1996, states that the Election Registration Board “shall deactivate the registration and remove the registration records” of any person “who did not vote in the two successive preceding regular elections as shown by their voting records.”
Deactivated voters may apply for reactivation until September 30, 2024, the deadline for the ongoing voters’ registration.
The deactivated voters will be placed on “inactive” status but will not be deleted from Comelec’s database.
Mabilog, who served as Iloilo City’s mayor from 2010 to 2017, has been out of the country since 2017 after being linked to illegal drug activities by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Deactivated voters can reactivate their records by personally appearing at the Comelec office, submitting a new application for registration, and completing the requirements.
Duterte tagged Iloilo City as the country’s “most shabulized” city and the “bedrock of illegal drugs” after accusing Mabilog of being a “drug protector.”
Mabilog had repeatedly denied the allegations and never returned home to Iloilo City since 2017 due to fears for his security.
In 2017, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales sacked Mabilog after he was found guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service over the alleged anomalous towing deal.
Morales ordered his dismissal from the service with the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and bar from taking the civil service examinations.
But the Court of Appeals (CA) has reversed the lifetime ban of Mabilog from public office, as it absolved him in an administrative case concerning allegations of ill-gotten wealth.
In a 22-page decision, the CA 19th Division granted Mabilog’s petition questioning the Ombudsman’s August 29, 2017 decision and February 8, 2018 order that found him guilty of serious dishonesty.
The CA further explained that Mabilog “did not conceal or misrepresent anything about this increase in his net worth,” because he openly declared the P8.98-million increase in his net worth and voluntarily submitted his wife’s tax returns./PN
