President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday he ordered a lifestyle check on Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and found out his house is like a palace.

Duterte said, in a speech during the oathtaking of the newly promoted police officers in Malacanang. he ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to check on Mabilog who has been requesting to meet him.

"Mabilog has sent word that he wants to talk to me. And I had some lifestyle check on him.

His house is like a palace in...I said he could be a son of a really wealthy (couple)," he said.

"I asked the NBI and the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) to look into his house. It's really a palace," he added.

Duterte has tagged Mabilog as one of the protectors of illegal drugs in Visayas.

But Mabilog denied the allegation as he sought for a meeting with Duterte, especially after the reassignment of Police Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido, the Ozamiz police chief, to Iloilo

Espenido was assigned in Albuera, Leyte where its mayor Rolando Espinosa Jr., a suspected drug lord, was killed in an alleged shootout inside a jail in November 2016.

He was later reassigned to Ozamiz City where its Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, also suspected drug lord, and 14 others were slain during simultaneous anti-drug raids.

Duterte blamed some politicians for the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.

"Many politicians are either cowed or are protectors of drug lords and criminals," he said.

"Some are even drug lords and criminals so they neither have the urgency nor possess the resolve to deal with the many evils affecting our society today." Celerina Monte/DMS