Duterte: Mabilog’s next

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday warned Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog that he would be “next” as he stressed that he was also going after “big fish” like slain Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa.

“The Mayor of Iloilo City, I identified him, this is broadcasted nationwide, I said, ‘You’re next. You’re next,’” he said at an event attended by legal luminaries in the ASEAN region in Malacañang.

Duterte was presenting his case on why he conducted the war on drugs and denying that he allowed extrajudicial killings amid the campaign.

“They say that, ‘This Duterte is only going after the small fry.’ Really? When I ordered that operation against Parojinog, the mayor of Ozamiz City, I didn’t have the second thoughts about, you know, what will happen. Because I knew that he was going to fight it out,” he said.

“The mayor of—Espinosa of Albuera, same thing. He shot his policemen in front of the people in the market because they would not obey him. And he has killed so many people. Shooting there… No election. It’s always terrorism,” he added.

After Parojinog was killed, Duterte was about to assign the former Ozamiz City and Albuera, Leyte police head Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido to Iloilo City. But the plan did not push through.

Mabilog filed a leave of absence last September, citing that he needs to undergo treatment for diabetes abroad.

Duterte also lashed out at retired police general Vicente Loot, whom he tagged as a narco-general in his first days in office.

“He was a military man at that time, but he just retired. And the idiot is now the Mayor of Daanbantayan [Cebu],” the President said.

“And they said, ‘Why do you have a SALN of 100 million?’ And he said because he was a successful businessman. Well, successful businessman in dealing drugs. He just omitted the last phrase,” he added. — BAP, GMA News