Seeking jobs. A big group of jobseekers shows up at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City to check potential jobs in the Philippine Tourism Job Fair on Thursday. PHOTO BY RHOY COBILLA

FORMER Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who was threatened to be killed by former president Rodrigo Duterte for his alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade, yesterday revealed a supposed plot to force him to link Liberal Party stalwarts and former senators Franklin Drilon and Mar Roxas to the illicit narcotics business.

Facing the House quadruple committee which is investigating the previous administration’s bloody war on drugs, Mabilog initially denied being a drug protector, saying the Duterte administration used a fabricated drug list to persecute political rivals, with personalities unjustly implicated without due process.

“Una po sa lahat (First of all) I declare that I was not and never will be a drug protector! I don’t know personally nor did I benefit in any way from any illegal drug personality in Iloilo or anywhere else,” he told the four House panels led by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the Committee on Dangerous Drugs.

Mabilog, who was forced to go into self-exile in the United States after receiving death threats from the former president himself, said not a single drug-related complaint has been filed against him until now.

The former Iloilo City mayor, who is a relative of Drilon, also alleged his inclusion in Duterte’s narco-list was a result of his affiliation with opposition political figures.

“Despite my hard work and dedication to public service, I was unjustly, baselessly included in former President Duterte’s so-called narco-list. This inclusion was made without any evidence, investigation, or due process,” Mabilog said.

Another opposition figure, former senator Leila de Lima, faced drug cases under the Duterte administration but was eventually acquitted by the court.

Mabilog recounted that after he fled to Japan in 2017 in the wake of the death threats, Police Brig. Gen. Bernardo Diaz allegedly told him to call a mobile number, which turned out to be that of then PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who invited him to a meeting in Camp Crame, saying he believed that he was innocent.

However, Mabilog said another police official, whom he did not identify, warned him that he would be forced to implicate two high-profile personalities as “drug lords” during the meeting.

“Upon arrival, I received a message from General Diaz, to call a number.  Using a public payphone, I made the call and spoke to General Bato, who expressed his sympathy.  He was talking to me in Bisaya.  He told me he knew I was innocent, that I wasn’t involved in illegal drugs, and he promised to help me.  His words brought a brief moment of hope,” he said.

“I told him (dela Rosa) I would finish my work abroad and return to meet him, but he urged me to be careful, repeating his pledge to help. It’s just after that call that my Philippine cellphone rang, this time it was another general, his voice was grim: Mayor, do not return, your life is in danger. The accusations against you are all fabricated, but if you go to Crame, you’ll be forced to point fingers to an opposition senator and a former presidential candidate as drug lords,” he added.

Later, Mabilog asked that he be allowed to just write the names of the two opposition figures on a piece of paper after Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, one of the quad comm’s chairmen, asked him to name them.

“If I asked you, better you answer by yes or no, is it former senator Mar Roxas?  Is it former Sen. Drilon, who is your cousin?” Paduano later said to which Mabilog replied: “Yes, sir.”

Dela Rosa, in a Viber message to reporters, confirmed that he talked with Mabilog before the latter went into hiding and asked him to go to Camp Crame where he can ensure his safety after the mayor’s name was implicated in illegal drug activities.

Dela Rosa said he knew Mabilog to be a straightforward public official who has been helping in anti-illegal drugs programs. He said he even told the mayor that he will convince Duterte that he was a good man.

“Di bale kung takot ka, pumunta ka dito sa akin sa Crame and I can assure you walang mangyayari sa iyo. Sabi niya ‘yes, sir pupunta ako diyan.’ Later on, tumawag siya ulit sa akin na hindi na daw siya pupunta sa akin kasi may nag advise daw sa kanya (If you are scared, better go to me here in Camp Crame and I can assure you that nothing will happen to you. He said, ‘yes sir, I will go there’ but later on he called me again and said that he will not proceed to Camp Crame anymore as he was advised against it),” Dela Rosa said.

He said he found Mabilog’s statement before the House joint panel “very incredible.” “Very incredible naman ‘yan na papuntahin ko siya ng Camp Crame para patayin? (That’s very incredible that I asked him to go to Camp Crame to have him killed?),” he also said.

Paduano told the joint committee that it was becoming clear that politics was the mere motive for Mabilog’s inclusion in the Duterte administration’s narco-list.

“So, Mr. Chairman, the reason why I am asking this is because from the very start of the statement, the affidavit of Jed Mabilog and his preliminary remarks, it is all about politics.  That’s why Duterte’s list again, from the statement of Col. (Jovie) Espenido, it appears that it has not gone through vetting and validation,” he said.

Mabilog said that the narco-list became a “hit list,” and then accused the Duterte administration of using it to silence political opponents. “Itong (this) PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) list diumano ay naging isang ‘hit list’ (This PRRD list allegedly became a ‘hit list’),” he said.

“Pero kung inyong titingnang maigi, isinama ang mga pangalan ng kalaban sa pulitika sa isang ‘validated’ list ng mga drug personalities sa kasunod na PRRD list (But if you examine closely, the names of political opponents were included in a ‘validated’ list of drug personalities in a subsequent PRRD list),” Mabilog said.

“Sa kabila ng mga kuwestiyunableng impormasyon, walang validation o confirmation man lang na ginawa ng kahit na anomang ahensya ng gobyerno sa Malacañang-initiated list (In the face of questionable information, there were no validations or even a confirmation by any government agency of the Malacañang-initiated list),” he also said.

The former mayor described how the escalating death threats eventually forced him and his family into self-exile.

“Paulit-ulit ang pagbabanta ni Presidente Duterte sa media, harap-harapang sinasabi na ipapa-patay daw ako (President Duterte’s death threats were repeatedly done in the media. He explicitly said I will be killed),” Mabilog said. “The terror was paralyzing. I couldn’t believe it – my life was hanging by a thread.”

Paduano informed the panel that it has received a copy of a letter from Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, the eldest child of the former president and a brother of Vice President Sara Duterte, expressing his desire to be allowed to participate in the hearings and question resource persons.

This prompted Barbers, who earlier said the quad comm has no choice but to respect the former president’s decision not to participate in the hearings, to order the committee secretary to extend the invitation to Rep. Duterte.

“Well, the letter states that there are questions that the Hon. Paolo Duterte wishes to ask the resource persons. And may we just ask the Committee Secretary to please make sure that the invitation will be extended to the Hon. Paolo Duterte in the next quad comm hearing with the topic on drugs and extrajudicial killings,” Barbers said.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., another panel chairman, said: “It is his solemn duty to attend this committee hearing being a member of the House, Mr. Chair, unless otherwise, he would like to be a resource person and not a witness, Mr. Chair.”

Barbers assured the joint panel that the invitation will be extended to Rep. Duterte for the next quad-comm hearings on the topic of dangerous drugs and extrajudicial killings.”

The quad comm, in a hearing in Pampanga last month, heard testimony from former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban, who implicated Rep. Duterte, his brother-in-law Manases “Mans” Carpio – the husband of the Vice President – and their father’s former economic adviser Chinese citizen Michael Yang, in the smuggling of P11 billion worth of shabu hidden in magnetic lifters at the Manila International Container Port in 2018.

PAYOLA?

Former Cebu City mayor Tommy Osmeña told the quad committee that retired Police Col. Royina Garma, who is reportedly close to the former president, allegedly received P1 million a week in payola when she was chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Davao City.

“I was made aware that in the previous hearing that Col. Garma said that our differences was personal. I just want you to know Mr. Chairman that I did not know her,” Osmeña told the joint panel.

Supt. Gerardo Padilla, a former warden of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) earlier told the quad comm that Garma, who was general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) under the Duterte administration, threatened his family to ensure his cooperation in the operation to liquidate three Chinese inmates convicted of drug offenses in 2016.

Garma, who is detained at the House, was not able to attend yesterday’s hearing after she complained of neck and ear pain which prompted Barbers to order the House’s medical team to bring her to a government hospital.

“Comm sec, you are directed to coordinate, ask the medical director of the House of Representatives to closely coordinate with a government hospital and bring Colonel Garma in a government-operated hospital,” Barbers said.

Osmeña said he opposed Garma’s transfer to Cebu after receiving information that she is collecting P1 million a week as chief of the CIDG in Davao City.

“It (report) says that when Garma was head of CIDG she was collecting P1 million a week. I cannot accept this for Cebu City. And her bagman was a certain SPO4 Art,” Osmeña said. “Now it appears that SPO4 Art is not only a lover. She brought this policeman with her when she was appointed to PCSO.”

Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, who is also one of the joint panel’s chairmen, said that the policeman Osmeña was referring to must be the same SPO4 Arthur Solis linked by two witnesses to the extrajudicial killing of three Chinese drug lords inside the DPPF in August 2016.

Osmeña, whom the joint panel invited to shed light on an illegal POGO raided by authorities in Lapu-Lapu City last month, told the committee that he knows more about extrajudicial killings than POGOs.

“I can tell you that there were innocent policemen and civilians killed. I will tell you more in your next hearing,” he said.