Gunmen Kill Mayor Accused by Philippine Leader of Drug Links

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a mayor in the central Philippines on Wednesday, police said, in a killing that occurred two years after President Rodrigo Duterte tagged him as a protector of drug pushers.

Mariano Blanco III, the mayor of Ronda town, in central Cebu province, was sleeping inside his office before dawn when four unidentified men broke in, overpowered his bodyguards and opened fire, police investigator Dionisio Tagupa said.

Blanco became the 17th local government official to be killed since Duterte took office in June 2016 and launched a bloody anti-drug campaign.

“After a second, a burst of fire was heard from the mayor’s office and then the unidentified persons left,” Tagupa told reporters.

The gunmen were aboard a van, Tagupa said, citing an account from the mayor’s aides.

No suspects have been identified.

In 2016, Duterte publicly accused Blanco of protecting drug dealers but did not provide evidence. The allegation, which the mayor denied, forced Blanco to change his daily routine, and this included sleepovers at his office.

In February this year, Blanco’s nephew, Jonah John Ungab, who was also the town’s vice mayor, was shot dead by gunmen outside a court house. Ungab was serving as legal counsel of confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.

In July, two mayors were killed in ambushes by gunmen that took place a day apart. One of the victims was Antonio Halili, mayor of Tanauan city, south of Manila, who was slain by a sniper’s bullet in front of city employees. The brazen attack happened during a flag-raising ceremony.

Halili was stripped of his powers to supervise the city’s police force last year due to his alleged drug links.

Among other mayors killed was Espinosa’s father, who was gunned down in jail because he allegedly pulled a gun on officers. Another mayor was slain after allegedly passing a police checkpoint with a huge drug haul in the south, while another was slain along with 14 of his followers during a raid at his home.

During the past two years, Duterte had publicly waved a list of officials that included police officers, military personnel and judges. He accused them of being involved in the illicit drug trade. His drugs war, according to rights advocates, has left at least 12,000 dead.

Duterte was forced to halt his anti-drugs operations last year following intense criticism from rights groups. But at his annual speech before Congress in June, he warned that his bloody campaign would continue, vowing that it would be “as relentless and chilling” as the day it began.

Duterte, in the meantime, faces two murder complaints before the Hague-based International Criminal Court. The charges were filed by the families of victims in his administration’s war on drugs and by two members of his alleged death squad when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao.

Jeoffrey Maitem and Luis Liwanag, in Manila, contributed to this report.