President Rodrigo Duterte said he has ordered a lifestyle check on Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and discovered his house was “like a palace.”
“Mabilog has sent a word that he wants to talk to me. And I had some lifestyle check on him,” he said in a speech after the oathtaking of star rank officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Malacañang.
The President said he has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to look into the properties and lifestyle of Mabilog.
“His house is like a palace,” he said.
“Sabi, anak siguro talaga ito ng mayamang mayaman. Yung bahay niya talagang ipinasilip ko sa NBI pati BIR, it’s really like a palace,” Duterte said.
Mabilog, in a radio interview on Tuesday, requested for a meeting with Duterte to clear his name.
The President earlier named him as among the narcopoliticians on his drug list.
The mayor has repeatedly denied the allegation.
He said he had “almost wholly focused” his efforts on the eradication of drugs in his city during the past year.
Mabilog said he hoped Espenido’s assignment in Iloilo would give Duterte a clearer picture of the drug situation in the city.