Cebu town vice mayor cries mistaken ID: It’s my brother tagged in drugs

President Rodrigo Duterte is determined to have everybody on his list of alleged drug coddlers investigated. But several on the list have denied links to the drug trade. (CDN FILE PHOTO)

CEBU CITY — Vice Mayor Fralz Sabalones of San Fernando town in southern Cebu has claimed being a victim of mistaken identity after President Rodrigo Duterte named him as among the officials tagged as protectors of illegal drugs.

A worried Sabalones went to the police station in San Fernando Police Station past noon, on Sunday, with his equally worried wife and three young daughters, said PO3 Marjukin Misuari, San Fernando Police Station desk officer.

Sabalones told policemen that the President might be referring to his brother Franz, who was rumored to be involved in drug trade, Misuari said.

A police blotter written by Misuari on the visit of Vice Mayor Sabalones to the police station quoted him as saying:  “This is just a classic example of mistaken identity… the Honorable President Rodrigo Duterte may have been referring  to Franz Sabalones.”

Vice Mayor Sabalones was there at the police station when Philippine Daily Inquirer called to follow up on President Duterte’s revelations. The vice mayor, however, declined to be interviewed.

PO1 Charben Sapio, who was at the station, when Sabalones and his wife arrived, said the two looked “very sad.”

The wife had told police that they could not sleep because of the report, said Sapio.

Sapio confirmed that the vice mayor’s elder brother has been accused of being involved in drugs but has been in hiding,

In the blotter report, Sabalones seemed to be blaming the media for immediately referring to him as the one involved in drugs.

According to the blotter report, Sabalones pointed out to the police that the media mistook him for Franz whom the President had mentioned and described as having run for mayor “but lost.”   “But the truth of the matter is his name is Fralz with an L and not Franz with an N,” the blotter report stated, referring to the vice mayor.

Sabalones went to the police station at 12:45 p.m. “to clear his name and deny and all involvement in the illegal drug trade in San Fernando.”

He told police that he was never charged with any crime or had never even faced any civil case.

Misuari said Sabalones had wanted to visit Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, police director for Central Visayas, to clear his name but the latter was not in his office.

He said Sabalones planned to visit Taliño on Monday and would decide after the meeting whether or not he would go to Camp Crame.  SFM