By Paulo Loreto Lim

After stating Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog would return to his city at the end of September, following a sick leave that was initiated on September 11, which immediately followed two consecutive trips overseas, spokesperson for the mayor, Atty. Mark Piad, yesterday said the city official’s sick leave is being extended another 30 days.
“He has communicated with us,” the spokesperson said during a press conference. “He is not yet fit to go back to work.”
Last month, Piad said the mayor was seeking treatment abroad for diabetes and did not to disclose the mayor’s current whereabouts.
Prior to announcing his sick leave, it was revealed the mayor served as speaker at a disaster-risk reduction forum in Japan and attended the Environmental Urban Accord Summit in Malaysia.
According to the spokesperson, the trip to Malaysia was “official business” and claimed he had foreign travel authority, signed by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary for Local Government Austere Panadero, valid from September 7 to 9.
Previously, both Piad and Iloilo City Administrator, Atty. Hernando Galvez, fended off rumors the mayor was fleeing the country, as he had left a day before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) conducted an inspection of his waterfront home, which overlooks the Iloilo River./WDJ