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A PHILIPPINE MAYOR on President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of allegedly narcotics-linked officials has been shot dead in his own office, according to police.
Mariano Blanco, mayor of the southern town of Ronda, is the latest in a spate of local officials to be slain in recent months, some with and some without alleged links to the illegal drug trade.
The Philippines has a violent and often deadly political culture, but watchdogs have expressed concern Duterte’s narcotics crackdown may be emboldening assailants.
Blanco (59) was shot dead by unidentified gunmen after midnight in his office, the local police chief said.
“Witnesses said four armed persons alighted from a white van and entered the municipal hall… The mayor was there as he was sleeping in his office,” Senior Inspector Jayr Palcon told AFP.
It was unclear why Blanco had decided to stay in his office overnight.
The mayor was pronounced dead at the hospital and the motive for the killing is under investigation.
Palcon said the mayor was on Duterte’s so-called narco-list of officials involved in drugs, which was confirmed by a spokesman for the Philippines’ Drug Enforcement Agency.
Blanco’s killing comes nearly a year after the National Police Commission stripped him of control over the local police for allegedly being “engaged in illegal drug trade activities,” the agency said.
Other killings
Another recent high profile killing came in July when mayor Antonio Halili was shot by a sniper during a flag raising ceremony at the town hall in Tanauan, south of Manila.
Blanco and Halili are among at least six mayors or vice mayors killed in the Philippines since May.
Blanco’s nephew and town vice mayor Jonah John Ungab was also shot dead by unidentified gunmen in February after attending a court hearing, police said.
The killings come as authorities are pursuing Duterte’s deadly crackdown on narcotics.
Police say 4,410 alleged drug dealers or users have been killed as part of the anti-drug campaign that Duterte launched since winning elections in mid-2016.
Rights groups charge that the actual death toll is three times higher and that the police and shadowy vigilantes are murdering people even without proof they are linked to drugs.
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That’s the way to do it
@Lambo Moonski: yeah extrajudicial murder. Right on
@Lambo Moonski: Good man, showing up your complete ignorance. A man getting rid of all opposition. No wonder these people get into power with the uneducated and dim-witted masses.
@TheHeathen: As if the idiots we voted in are any better
@Vincent: When did an Irish elected official condone extrajudicial murder?
@Vincent: Its not like we see anyone in government going around with a hit list and people then going out and shooting them. Kop onn.
@Larissa Nikolaus:You’re kidding right ?
I would be afraid to buy aspirins in that country
@FlopFlipU: yet many of the infamous no go areas are now safe to walk through.
@Greg Blake: It’s just all other areas that are unsafe now!
@FlopFlipU: Nah, as long as you buy your illegal drugs from the presidents friends you’d be okay..
The Wild West is Alive and Well in the Phillipines !
Can’t wait for Netflix to get on This!!!
The Philippines not a country to go if you want to survive
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: I was there for a few weeks last year, it was grand, not dangerous at all
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: I was there this year and it was perfectly safe. One of the nicest places I’ve visited
@Sorcha Hendry instagram: @SorchaHendry86: heading over in November. Can’t wait. Nice break before Christmas
@Richy: enjoy, don’t make any enemies, by the sounds of it all they have to do is tell a cop you have drugs and you’re dead
He’s only doing what Trump wishes he could do.
Kill anyone who gets in his way!
I wonder if they’re both related.
Pair of Nut Jobs.
latin american countries can’t seem to make progress to clean up the drug gangs. with the killing of judges and so on. duterte would be long gone.
@Sean Conway: lucky so that philippines is in Asia.
@Sean Conway: I’m the idiot yet it’s you that doesn’t know where Philippines is located. Nice one.
@B9xiRspG: I think Sean was making a comparison to areas where drug lords reign. They we’re heading down that road. He didn’t say it was in the americas.
@Sean Conway: you clearly think that the Philippine islands are in central America…Clearly ….
@Greg Blake: The philippine gangs are not as ruthless as the latin american gangs. sorry for not making it more clear.
@Joe O’riordan: no he clearly said in the last sentence that Duterte would be long gone if he was in charge of a Latin American country.
The bloke is a psycho.
Seems to me he has the attitude of someone sniffing the bejaysus out of it.
Funnily enough he hasn’t shot his own son yet.
have your say