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Friday, March 29, 2024

Rody won’t fall for Iloilo pol’s ‘antics’

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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte told Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog that he would never be fooled by the latter’s antics after he supposedly offered a P1-million bounty for the arrest of Iloilo top drug lord Richard Prevendido, who was recently shot dead by authorities. 

In a speech laden with profanities Tuesday night during the 55th anniversary of Metrobank in Taguig City, Duterte said  Mabilog’s bounty on Prevendido was only meant to flatter the President.

The President said his belief that Mabilog condoned the illegal drug trade in Western Visayas would not change, despite the latter’s apparent effort to help the authorities. 

Prevendido was killed in a shootout with policemen in Iloilo City’s Jaro district Sept. 1 last week.

Mabilog had earlier claimed half of the million-peso bounty for Prevendido’s neutralization, while the other half was offered by the provincial government of Iloilo.

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In the same interview, Duterte claimed he never placed Ozamiz City chief Police Inspector Jovie Espenido. 

“Look, I did not say that you should be there as a chief of police,” he said.

Duterte initially assigned Espenido to Iloilo City, but his reassignment did not push through for lacking the qualifications to handle Iloilo City, a highly-urbanized city. 

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police has been given more time to refute the denial made by Cebu-based businessman Peter Lim on drug trading charges it filed against him.

During the preliminary investigation hearing on Wednesday, the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group presented witness Marcelo Adorco to subscribe to his statement against Lim as part of their reply.

However, CIDG lawyers were not ready with Adorco’s affidavit and asked that Adorco be allowed to subscribe to the panel ahead of his sworn statement because he had to go to Letye.

Because of this, the Department of Justice’s panel of prosecutors denied the request and required Adorco to return for subscription of his affidavit with the submission of the PNP reply in the next hearing on Sept. 12.

Another respondent in the complaint, Lovely Adam Impal, who was arrested by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency last January and currently detained in Iligan City, was not present during the hearing.

The DoJ panel allowed her to subscribe her affidavit before a prosecutor in the province.

Lim, who has close ties with Duterte, already submitted to the investigating panel his counter-affidavit seeking dismissal of the charges of sale, administration, dispensation, trading, delivery and transportation of illegal drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Lim vehemently denied the drug charges as “baseless and nonsensical.” 

He said he was never involved in illegal drug trade in Central Visayas as alleged by the PNP and never met Marcelo Adorco or Kerwin Espinosa and other respondents tagged in the illegal drug trade.

The businessman also again denied he was the alias Jaguar in the government’s narcolist, recalling that he even presented himself before the National Bureau of Investigation earlier.

Alleged drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa, who is currently under custody of the witness protection program of the DoJ, is also a respondent in this case and has already submitted his counter-affidavit.

The other respondents in the complaint are inmate Peter Co, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan and Jun Pepito.

The PNP complaint tagged Lim as the alleged supplier of illegal drugs to the group of Espinosa.

It identified Co and Impal as among those who supplied illegal drugs to Espinosa’s operation in Central and Eastern Visayas.    

The DoJ has issued earlier a lookout bulletin order against Lim and other respondents.  

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier revealed that Espinosa might turn state witness in the drug charges against Lim.

Espinosa tagged Lim as top illegal supplier in Central Visayas during the Senate inquiry into illegal drug trade last year. 

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