ILOILO CITY — President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Thursday said that he has no knowledge on the inclusion of the two mayors he previously tagged as “narco-politicians” to his party Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP).
He was referring to Mayor Mariano Malones of Maasin town and Alex Centena of Calinog town.
“I do not know, I have not checked it. I do not even know that they are with the PDP already. I have to check and we will be fair,” he said in a press briefing, a sideline to his visit to the wake of slain overseas Filipino worker Joanna Daniela Demafelis in Sara, Iloilo.
“If they are really involved in drugs then I am sorry, PDP cannot help you. But if you are clean and you are unnecessarily dragged into the web of intrigues then we can also have a remedy on that,” President Duterte added.
Malones and Centena are among the more than 4,000 local officials in the Third District of Iloilo who took their oath before the ruling PDP last January 18.
Meanwhile, President Duterte also clarified that dismissed Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog is not yet cleared from his list.
According to him, Mabilog’s name is already in the list during the early days of the drug war.
He said that he is a “target” because information from the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Air Force and the Philippine National Police showed that Mabilog’s name was always included.
Mabilog has reportedly escaped the country last year together with his wife and children for security reasons. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
