IF FORMER mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog had not flown out of Iloilo City to escape the wrath of his “tormentor” in 2017, would he have run for congressman in the forthcoming May 13, 2019 election?
The prevailing belief even among his political allies is that the then “graduating” mayor would have attempted to explore the untested House of Representatives. Having run and always won for councilor, vice mayor and mayor, he would no doubt be ripe for another challenge this time.
Not having filed his certificate of candidacy for congressman, he is obviously not coming home from his undisclosed location abroad with wife Marivic and their two kids. Why should he when he’s on top of “Duterte’s list”?
Detractors argue that if he were no drug lord or a “protector” because he is innocent, then President Rodrigo Duterte would have cleared himself already.
Let us go down memory lane to the month of August 2017 when the regional office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) cleared Mabilog of illegal drug connections. Whoa! Within the week, PDEA regional director Gil Pabilona was also “cleared” of his post.
Anybody else in Mabilog’s shoes would be as wary, knowing that two other “marked” mayors – Mayors Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte and Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamis City – had died in the hands of the police, rubbed out before the “eyes” of disabled CCTV cameras.
Regardless of public perception, the two “narco-politicians” should have been presumed innocent. To quote Article III, Sec. 1 of the Constitution (the Bill of Rights), “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.”
No less than President Rodrigo Duterte’s son Paolo claimed such presumption of innocence in a Senate hearing called to probe the entry P6.4-billion of shabu from China.
The prevailing belief among Ilonggos is that Mabilog just happened to have earned the ire of then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, who came to campaign in Iloilo City in the first week of May 2016 but was not allowed to use Freedom Grandstand. He spoke at La Paz Plaza instead.
Alas, Mabilog’s allies at the city council have never defended him, as if any adversarial move on their part would endanger their own political future. You see, some of them are now running for re-election.
My take is that Jed Mabilog, assuming he had not abandoned City Hall, would still quit at the end of his term in 2019. I remember my interview with him during his first term as councilor at his ancestral house, where he said he would quit politics after age 50.
He turned 51 on Sept. 20, 2016.
Briefly on Jed’s roots, he is the fifth of 10 children born to the late spouses Jose Chavez Mabilog and the Melchorita Locsin Escalante of Barangay Tap-oc, Molo, Iloilo City, where their ancestral home still stands.
As soon as he graduated and got his BS Biology diploma at the West Visayas State University (WVSU), he proceeded to Medicine Proper but quit after only three years. At age 22, he worked as salesman for the brokerage firm Delbros. A competing firm, K-Line, pirated him and assigned him to Canada, where he married the former Maria Victoria Griengo.
He had never aspired to be a politician. One day in 2004 while on home vacation, however, then mayor Jerry Treñas and Baluarte’s barangay captain Gilbert Garcia lured him into running for councilor. He won. That started his political journey. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
