Mabilog ordered dismissed over unexplained wealth

Jed Patrick Mabilog

ILOILO CITY – The Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal from service of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patric Mabilog for failing to explain an increase in his wealth of nearly P9 million within a year.

In a 13-page decision, the anti-graft body found Mabilog guilty of serious dishonesty.

He was also meted the accessory penalties of forfeiture of retirement benefits, cancellation of civil service eligibility, perpetual disqualification from holding public office and a bar from taking civil service examinations.

Mabilog’s spokesperson, lawyer Mark Piad, said they have not received a copy of the decision and learned of it only from news reports.

“We will explore the possibility of asking the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order (on the implementation of the order),” Piad told the INQUIRER.

He said he has not spoken to the mayor but reiterated the mayor’s denial that his family has acquired ill-gotten wealth.

The mayor has insisted that his assets were accumulated from his earnings as a businessman even before he became a politician and from earnings of his wife Marivic who was employed for 21 years rising to become vice president for finance and comptroller of Terracom Geotechnique, a geogetic engineering firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She retired in December 2014.

The couple and their two children are in an undisclosed location outside of the country.

The mayor has gone on an extended sick leave after attending international conferences in Japan and in Malaysia since August 31 and is expected to be back at the end of the month.

Marivic and their two children left the country due to safety concerns amid repeated public tirades of President Duterte against the mayor whom he has repeatedly accused as a drug protector.

The Ombudsman decision was penned by graft investigator and prosecutor Rachel Cariaga-Farila on August 29 and approved by Melchor Arthur Carandang, overall deputy Ombudsman on October 6.

In its decision, the Ombudsman cited the increase of P8,981,082.52 in Mabilog’s networth as reflected in his 2012 and 2013 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth.

It noted that Mabilog submitted proof on the “lawful source” of his wife’s income in Canada from 2007 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2012. But he failed to submit proof of her income from her salary in Canada for 2013.

He also failed to submit proof of income from business interests he declared in his SALN.

“His failure to properly account or explain his sources of income establishes the presence of malicious intent to conceal the truth, causing grave prejudice to the government to the amount of P8,981,082.52,” according to the decision.

The case stemmed from complaints filed by former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada, a fierce critic of Mabilog, for unexplained wealth and plunder.

Among the assets that Mejorada had questioned is the controversial three-story house of Mabilog called “White House.”

President Duterte in August ordered a lifestyle check on Mabilog.

On Wednesday, he again criticized Mabilog’s for his alleged links to illegal drugs.

“You’re next,” the President said without elaborating or giving details on what he meant.

Piad said the President’s latest comment was a cause for concern especially that it was uttered along with the President’s mentioning of slain mayors Rolando Espinosa of Albuera town in Leyte and Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamiz City.

“The mayor said he is leaving it all to God,” Piad said.

Mabilog was elected mayor in 2010, reelected in 2013 and serving his third and last term until 2019.