{"id":45211,"date":"2018-07-04T18:01:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T18:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=45211"},"modified":"2018-07-04T18:01:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T18:01:18","slug":"philippine-narco-politician-mayor-shot-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=45211","title":{"rendered":"Philippine ‘Narco-politician’ mayor shot dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He died as he was being taken to hospital 45 minutes later.<\/p>\n

“The bullet went through his chest,” Superintendent Renato Mercado, Tanuan police chief, said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mr Halili was among the more than 160 officials Mr Duterte publicly linked to drugs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mr Duterte had tagged Mr Espinosa as one of the biggest drug traffickers in central Philippines.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mr Loot had been repeatedly named by Mr Duterte as one of the so-called “narco-generals” protecting the illegal drug trade.<\/p>\n

Mr Halili had denied being involved in the drug trade. He was known for parading drug suspects around his city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n