Politics eyed in killing of vice mayor

Police on Sunday said politics could have been behind the killing of Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan of Trece Martires City, Cavite, on Saturday.

Chief Supt. Edward Carranza, chief of the Calabarzon police, was quoted in a television report as saying that politics was the motive for the slaying of Lubigan, adding that the vice mayor was not on a government narco list.

Calabarzon groups Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

The Manila Times tried to reach Carranza for elaboration on the motive but he did not answer phone calls as of press time.

The television report said the police formed Special Investigation Task Group Lubigan, which would look deeper into the killing of the vice mayor.

Also on Sunday, Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde ordered all special investigation task groups to get to the bottom of the assassination of local government executives.

MAYOR MOURNED Gina Halili, the widow of Mayor Antonio Halili, is consoled by her relatives during mass at the Saint John the Evangelist Parish Church in Tanauan City, Batangas. The mayor, who was gunned down on July 2, was buried on Sunday. PHOTO BY ANDREA DE LA CRUZ

“We are disturbed and saddened by this [Lubigan killing] and similar incidents involving our local chief executives,” he said in a statement.

Tanauan City (Batangas) Mayor Antonio Halili was shot and killed during flag-raising at city hall on July 2.

On July 3, Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio town in Nueva Ecija was also gunned down.

Albayalde urged the public to throw their support behind the police in probing the recent killings of local officials.

No connection

Police said there was no clear connection between the slaying of Lubigan and the killings of the two mayors.

However, Wilnor Papa, Philippine spokesman for Amnesty International, said that while political violence was not new, “(President Rodrigo) Duterte has aggravated it through his pronouncements.”

“The Duterte administration is empowering vigilante killings,” he added, citing the President’s calls for ordinary citizens to kill drug dealers and his vow to protect officers who get sued while pursuing his drug campaign.

At least 10 mayors including Halili and Bote have been killed since Duterte took office. Lubigan, a member of a political party allied with the President, was the fifth vice mayor killed in that period.

Duterte ran on a law-and-order platform that included promises to kill thousands of people involved in the drug trade, including officials.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, president of the opposition Liberal Party, on Sunday urged the government to do more to stop the killings.

“What we want is a safe, secure, and peaceful society, not a gangster land,” Pangilinan said in a statement.