EXCLUSIVE: Drilon on 2017 plot to link him, Mar to drug trade: ‘I heard it for the first time this morning’
Former Senate president Franklin Drilon did not know about the Duterte administration’s alleged plan to pressure his cousin, then Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog, to implicate him and former Senator and fellow Liberal Party stalwart Mar Roxas in the illicit drug trade.
“I heard it for the first time this morning,” Drilon told the Inquirer Mobile in a text message yesterday, referring to the testimony made by Mabilog to the House quad-committee investigating the links between the illegal drug trade, extrajudicial killings and illegal Philippine offshore gaming operations during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte.
Drilon declined to further comment on Mabilog’s testimony as he has “no knowledge or information of the events that Mabilog testified on.”
“I cannot deny or confirm the Mabilog statement for lack of information.”
Breakup of alliance
In an interview last week, the Inquirer Mobile wanted to know if Mabilog’s return from the United States, where he and his family sought asylum in 2017, was indicative of an improved political environment, and that he could seek justice for being tagged as a narco-politician by the Duterte administration.
“It only means the perceived influence of (President) Duterte is waning because they have parted ways with the Marcos administration,” was Drilon’s response.
The former lawmaker also said in the previous interview that the recent breakup of the political alliance between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte paved the way for the exposés now being revealed by witnesses in the House quad-committee.
“What is happening today would not have happened had (Mr. Marcos and Sara Duterte) stayed together,” said Drilon.
In his testimony before the quad-committee, Mabilog mentioned an incident that occurred after he left the country for Japan in 2017 due to fear for his life.
Mabilog said Police Brig. Gen. Bernardo Diaz had asked him to call a mobile number which turned out to belong to Ronaldo “Bato” de la Rosa, who is now a senator.
In the phone conversation, De la Rosa told him that he believed that he (Mabilog) was not involved in the drug trade, which gave the latter confidence in thinking of returning home.
But following his phone call to de la Rosa, another police official, whom he did not identify, reached out to him to warn him that if he returned to the country, he would be forced to “point fingers” at two high-profile personalities as “drug lords.”
Upon questioning by Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, Mabilog confirmed that the two officials he was referring to were Drilon and Roxas.
