Duterte willing to meet with Iloilo City mayor, says Palace

Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. NESTOR BURGOS/INQUIRER FILE

Malacañang on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte was willing to meet with Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who the chief executive said was on his drug list.

Mabilog, in a radio DZMM interview on Tuesday, requested for a meeting with Duterte.

“We don’t have word if any meeting has been set up. I am sure if he goes to the usual channels of appointment, and I’m sure the President will be willing to sit with him,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a Palace briefing.

Mabilog said he has previously requested to meet the President but to no avail.

Mabilog was among the local politicians included on the drug list of Duterte for allegedly protecting drug lords. But the mayor has repeatedly denied this allegation.

In an ambush interview in Pampanga, Duterte reiterated Mabilog was on his “narcolist.”

READ: Stop protecting drug lords, Duterte warns Iloilo City mayor

“Well, I’ll tell you again, Mayor. Dinadawit ka (You are being implicated). For the longest time, updated list, nandiyan ka (You are there),” Duterte said.

“Do not protect. Do not call the police ganito na ganito. Do not just mess up with the… kasi ‘pagka nandiyan, drug lord ka rin e. Mapipilitan ako. Bakit ka nag-protekta?” he added.

It was not the first time the President named the local executive as a drug protector.

Asked why Mabilog was being singled out by the President, Abella said, “I don’t think there is any need to single out Mabilog in that sense, but it is simply part of the president overall campaign against illegal drugs.”

Espenido reassignment

On Monday, Duterte announced the reassignment of Police Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido to Iloilo, the province earlier tagged by the President as the “bedrock” of illegal drugs in the Visayas.

“We call on our people to unite with the state in our campaign against drugs thru both police action and drug prevention and rehab with full respect for law, for human rights, and the rule of law, which is the pledge of the President,” Abella said.

The Palace official said Espenido was “going to be part of the whole government approach which is something to do with prevention, rehabilitation and so it’s going to be a whole government approach.”

“He is expected to work with the rest of the whole government,” he said.

He said there was “no specific spelled out reason” why Espenido was being assigned to Iloilo.

But pressed whether Espenido’s reassignment to Iloilo was a sign that the province has serious drug problem, Abella said, “I suppose the best we can say at this stage is that it is sign that his work in Ozamiz is done.”

READ: Espenido’s deployment to Iloilo stumps mayor

Espenido, who has been described by some as a scourge of alleged drug lords, led the raids on the houses of the Parojinog clan in July that led to the death of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 14 others.

Espenido was also the police commander of Albuera, Leyte, when Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. was killed in an alleged shootout inside the subprovincial jail in Baybay City. IDL