INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Police said the mayor was repeatedly shot with the use of a short firearm (Representational)MANILA: Motorcycle-borne gunmen on Tuesday
assassinated a mayor in a town north of the Philippine capital, the second such killing of an official in two days, police said.Ferdinand
Bote, 57, became the 12th elected local official murdered since President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a deadly anti-narcotics campaign after
coming to power two years ago, although Bote was not linked to the drug trade.He and his driver were leaving a government office in the
capital of Nueva Ecija province when gunmen approached his sport utility vehicle and shot him dead, said Adrian Gabriel, the town's police
chief."He was repeatedly shot with the use of a short firearm," police said in an initial report, but the driver escaped unhurt
Police retrieved at least 18 empty shells at the scene.The government will spare no effort in getting to the bottom of the latest crime,
said Harry Roque, a spokesman for Duterte."We assure everyone that we will discharge the state obligation for every murder," Roque said in a
statement, promising a fair and thorough investigation by police to bring the perpetrators to justice.On Monday, Antonio Halili, 72, who had
gained prominence in 2016 for parading drug suspects in the streets of Tanauan, south of Manila, was hit by a bullet in the chest while
attending a weekly flag-raising ceremony.Duterte said the mayor may have had some drug involvement and his "walk of shame" campaign to
parade suspects was a ploy to convince police he was not engaged in the illegal drug trade.At Halili's wake, his daughter Angeline told
reporters it was unfair to link her father to the drug trade, and said Duterte had been misinformed."I can't blame the president," she added
"If that's always what you hear from the same people that you talk to - and they keep telling you the same thing - it gets in your system to
the point that you believe it, even though it's a lie."Halili had been stripped of his supervisory powers over police in October 2017, due
to a proliferation of illegal drugs in his city, amid allegations by the national police that he may have been involved
Halili had denied the allegations.Police have killed more than 4,200 people in the anti-narcotics campaign since July 2016, with another
2,500 suspected drug suspects killed by unknown assailants over the same period.Human rights advocates said the victims were executed by the
police, who have denied the accusations, saying most of the killings were done in self-defence.© Thomson Reuters 2018
