International desk: A mayor on President Rodrigo Duterte's list of “narco-politicians” was shot and killed as he presided over a flag-raising ceremony early on Monday (July 2).
Police said Mr Antonio Halili, mayor of Tanauan city, 66km south of the capital Manila, was shot in the chest, possibly by a sniper, at around 8am.
He died as he was being taken to hospital 45 minutes later.
“The bullet went through his chest,” Superintendent Renato Mercado, Tanuan police chief, said in a radio interview.
Director-General Oscar Albayalde, the national police chief, said investigators had no leads yet, but that a task force was being formed to look into the killing.
Mr Halili was among the more than 160 officials Mr Duterte publicly linked to drugs.
He was the fourth local politician to be killed in the government's controversial war on the narcotics trade, which has left over 5,000 dead since June 2016.
In July last year (2017), police killed Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, of Ozamiz city, in the war-torn southern island of Mindanao, during a series of pre-dawn anti-drug raids. His wife and 10 of his supporters were also killed.
Police officers killed Mr Rolando Espinosa, mayor of Albuera town, in the central province of Leyte, in November 2016, shooting him inside a jail cell.
Mr Duterte had tagged Mr Espinosa as one of the biggest drug traffickers in central Philippines.
A week before that, Mr Samsudin Dimaukom, mayor of Saudi Ampatuan town in Mindanao, and 10 of his men were gunned down in a clash with anti-narcotics officers.
Another mayor in Mr Duterte's drug list, Mr Vicente Loot, a former police general, of Daanbantayan town in central Philippines, survived an ambush in May – four months after Mr Duterte publicly threatened to kill him.
Mr Loot had been repeatedly named by Mr Duterte as one of the so-called “narco-generals” protecting the illegal drug trade.
Mr Halili had denied being involved in the drug trade. He was known for parading drug suspects around his city.
