Prior to boarding the RORO in Batangas going to Caticlan, Aklan, 3 employees of Iloilo City DRUG LORD Melvin Odicta Sr. were caught for illegal possession of firearms and drugs in two vehicles that formed part of the 4 vehicle convoy of the now DECEASED Odicta husband and wife SHABU provincial traffickers. The three Odicta employees, Manolito Susano alias Jojo, Marlon Susano and Maria Victoria Layco, were left behind and “booked” in Batangas. Melvin Sr. and wife Merriam were gunned down in Caticlan as they disembarked from the ferry boat. Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog, personally announced by President Duterte as a DRUG PROTECTOR, is being eyed as a possible suspect in the murders considering that Mabilog publicly called for Odicta to be arrested as well as saying that he wanted DRUG LORDS to be KILLED. Mabilog benefited from the DEMISE of the Odicta pair since the murder victims can not now testify against Mabilog. Newspaper reports claim that the Odicta couple submitted “confidential documents” to the DILG when they paid a courtesy call to DILG Secretary Mike Sueno. The purpose of the audience was to “clear their names” as well as to inform the Secretary of the THREAT against their lives ever since their identities achieved national prominence.
In year 2000, then barangay level drug pusher Manolito Susano was involved in the deaths of Barangay Kapitan Nemencio Del Rosario and Kagawad Nestor Bautista of Barangay 168 Deparo, Caloocan City. Manolito ambushed both Kapitan Del Rosario, who lived for two days thus was able to name his assailant, and Kagawad Bautista who died immediately. Manolito was jailed for 9 years at the Caloocan City Jail but was released upon withdrawal of the case filed by Del Rosario’s widow. During the same year 2000 period, a number of deaths were attributed to Manolito Susano but few of the families of the deceased filed formal complaints due to fear for their lives. The Del Rosario-Bautista murder cases were the exceptions rather than the rule. While Manolito Susano was imprisoned for 9 years while the cases were ongoing, technically, he was NEVER CONVICTED because of his release upon intervention of the Del Rosario widow.
Suspected DRUG LORDS Melvin (alias DRAGON) and Merriam Odicta were KILLED. *** Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog was previously NAMED by President Duterte as the DRUG LORD PROTECTOR in the mayor’s jurisdiction. **** Mayor Mabilog issued a press statement that Dragon should be arrested. *** Mayor Mabilog, in June 2016, announced to the world that he would KILL DRUG LORDS. *** Dragon and his wife went to the DILG office to clear their names. *** Odicta lawyer Raymond Fortun denied that his clients executed notarized affidavits pointing to politicians and local executives. *** Fortun also said that the Odictas did not submit their own version of the DRUG OPERATION MATRIX.
Whether Mabilog, a cousin of Senator Franklin Drilon, is a DRUG PROTECTOR or not, he BENEFITED from the deaths of the Odictas because if MABILOG is GUILTY the high value Odicta couple can no longer TESTIFY against him. If Mabilog is INNOCENT, then the deceased Odicta husband and wife can no longer FRAME HIM UP. Photo: Note DRAGON tattoo . .
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https://duterte2016.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/duterte-dragon-couple-deaths-and-iloilo-city-mayor-mabilog/
https://duterte2016.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/duterte-murdered-iloilo-dragon-couple-killed-for-implicating-lawmakers-and-local-officials/
https://duterte2016.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/duterte-pinpointed-iloilo-city-drug-protector-mayor-jed-mabilog-now-a-sitting-duck-after-dragon-and-his-wife-are-killed/
https://duterte2016.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/duterte-iloilo-drug-lord-alias-dragon-wife-shot-dead-in-aklan/
A drug lord’s death
August 30, 2016 Jojo Robles Manila Standard
It was after 1 a.m. yesterday when controversial Iloilo businessman Melvin Odicta and his wife Meriam arrived at the Caticlan ferry jetty in Aklan. They were just getting off the ro-ro ferry after making the long journey from Batangas City when shots rang out in the dark.
When the initial confusion subsided, the Odictas were lying in pools of blood. They were taken to a local hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival.
This was no ordinary case of “extra-judicial killing,” as the opponents of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war usually describe such incidents. Melvin Odicta, alias “Boyet” and “Dragon,” was allegedly the top drug dealer in Iloilo City and its neighboring areas—the most “shabulized” part of the country, according to Duterte himself.
Odicta was, according to sources in the city, under the protection of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. Mabilog was named by the president as one of the most prominent public officials protecting drug syndicates, in a list he read in public recently; Mabilog is also a second cousin of Iloilo political kingpin Senator Franklin Drilon.
Odicta gained national notoriety last year, when he and his son, Melvin Jr., and Jing-Jing Espinosa, led a group of armed men in storming a local radio station which had been reporting about Odicta’s illegal drug ring. The Odictas and Espinosa, a barangay councilman who is believed to be the second-in-command of the elder Odicta, were caught in CCTV footage during the attempted raid of the offices of dyOK Aksyon Radyo Iloilo last November.
Were the Odictas killed at the Caticlan ferry port to silence them? It would seem so, according to sources that I interviewed in Iloilo.
The killings were certainly not perpetrated by rival gangs using Duterte’s anti-drug campaign as a convenient excuse to get rid of the competition, as the police have described some of the recent killings. According to veteran Iloilo journalist and blogger Manuel “Boy” Mejorada, the Odictas have already eliminated their main rival in the drug trade, an operation run by the Prevendido family.
In fact, Odicta has already “graduated” to legitimate businesses in Iloilo and was allegedly grooming the heavily-tattooed Espinosa to take over the local drug trade. Odicta is the operator of a big local taxi fleet named “Melvin” and runs an airport shuttle service, Mejorada said.
But the circumstances of the killing of the Odicta couple in Caticlan merit more than just passing mention. In fact, they had just come from Manila, where they met with Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael “Mike” Sueno, to deny involvement in the Iloilo drug trade and to promise that they would identify the real narcotics kingpins and their protectors among the top officials of the city.
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Odicta’s lawyer, Raymond Fortun, had sought the meeting with Sueno, I’m told, so that his client may explain himself. Fortun said the meeting last Thursday was not a “surrender” by his client, but was requested by Odicta upon the recommendation of the Iloilo police; Fortun said his client was not in any list of drug dealers of the police and merely wanted to clear his name.
But PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa laughed off Odicta’s denials, advising the businessman to “tell it to the marines.” The always-quotable Dela Rosa made the remarks on Friday, the same day that he advised drug addicts and pushers to kill the drug lords who are oppressing them.
“Who is he [Odicta] fooling?” Dela Rosa said in a speech before the Region 6 police. “Don’t you know that he is the drug lord and yet he denies it?”
That was how things stood when on Sunday night, the Odicta couple decided that they would return to Iloilo the same way they arrived: In four vans full of armed bodyguards and other hangers-on, by way of Batangas City, where they would load the vehicles in a ro-ro ferry across the inland sea to Caticlan, where the convoy would proceed by land to Iloilo City on the other side of Panay Island.
According to my sources, the Odictas often travel this way, not only because they employed very stringent security measures, but also because they did not want to ride airplanes, where they could easily be detected and followed. But this time, their trip to Iloilo was stalled in the Batangas ferry port.
When the four-van convoy was about to board the ferry, it was stopped by elements of the PNP Highway Patrol Group. Two of the vans, which were not being used by the Odicata couple, were offloaded because of the presence of armed men in them; the other half of the convoy was allowed to proceed.
The Odictas had just arrived at the Caticlan ferry jetty and were walking off the vessel before boarding their two vans when they were cut down. It is still unclear as of yesterday if their assailants were with them on the ro-ro ferry or if they had been waiting for the couple in ambush at the port.
Did the Odicta drug syndicate die with the murder of Dragon, who got his name from the dragon tattooed on his chest? What about the protectors of the Iloilo drug trade in government—will they get off the hook as well, now that Odicta is gone?
The people of Iloilo, who are still smarting from the “most shabulized” tag, will be watching the Duterte administration’s handling of this sensational case. The success of the entire anti-drug campaign of the government could hang in the balance.
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WE WILL KILL ILLEGAL DRUGS IN THE CITY OF ILOILO–MAYOR JED PATRICK MABILOG
Iloilo City–“We will kill illegal drugs in the city of Iloilo and I mean it.”
Matigdas ini nga deklarasyon ni Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog sa “Hublag Kontra Droga” Anti-Drug Summit sa Jaro Gym kahapon. Suno sa alkalde, seryoso ang Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) nga matapna ang illegal drugs gani ipatawag niya isa-isa ang 150 ka mga drug personalities nga yara sa listahan base sa ginpasa nga Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC) report.
Nagpamahog pa si Mayor Mabilog sa mga durugista nga mas maayo nga magbiya sa syudad kon magpadayon sa illegal nga aktibidad agud indi nila maaguman ang bug-os nga puwersa sang laye.
Napaslawan naman ang alkalde nga i-mitlang ang pangalan sang gin-identify sang PDEA 6 nga mga drug group leaders sa syudad. (Aine Grace Bravo) AksyonRadyoIloilo
Balitang Balita 