“Can you really send back people to where they are fleeing from?” –Peter Maurer
“The correct decision and the right move” would be the words uttered by supporters of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog if they were to gather, following the recent assassinations of two other mayors; Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas was killed by a sniper during a flag-raising ceremony last Tuesday, while Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija was killed the following day while being driven from the National Irrigation Administration compound in Cabanatuan City.
After it was earlier revealed Halili was on the “narco-list” compiled by President Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor was stripped of bodyguards and police power, much like Mabilog. While Bote was not on the list, some believe his killer was the same who targeted Halili.
The Tanauan City mayor denied involvement with illegal drugs and reportedly “feared for his life” after, what he called, “wrong intelligence” got him labeled a “narco-politician.”
For Mabilog, the president threatened to “kill” in several speeches and insisted the former mayor was the cousin of slain drug lord Melvin ‘Boyet’ Odicta, Sr.
Based on recollection, the president posed such threats seven times, with the most recent being before the Philippine Councilors League in Iloilo City last month.
Like Halili, Mabilog is a member of the Liberal Party and repeatedly insisted he was never involved with illegal drugs. In addition, he also affirmed he was not related to Odicta; however, he is the second cousin of opposition Senator Franklin Drilon – the president refused to listen and nixed all possible meetings with the then-Iloilo City mayor.
Duterte continued to tarnish Mabilog’s name and, prior to his dismissal from office by the Office of the Ombudsman in October 2017, the Iloilo City official had already decided not to return to the country following conferences in Japan and Malaysia. His wife, Marivic, and their two children, also left the country, citing security concerns, and joined him at an undisclosed location.
Aside from Halili and Bote, three other mayors, Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, and Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamiz City, who all happened to be linked to illegal drugs, were killed during the Duterte administration. Their deaths were all links to the Duterte administration’s “all-out” war on illegal drugs./WDJ