TWO Filipino mayors gunned down in two days?
It was Tanauan City mayor Antonio Halili who fell dead from sniper fire while singing the national anthem in front of city hall Monday morning, July 2. In the afternoon of July 3, Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija slumped dead in his Toyota Fortuner, ambushed by a motorcycle rider while crossing a highway.
I was watching TV in the wake of the Halili assassination when the screen beamed the forlorn image of President Duterte addressing a gathering at Maasin, Leyte. As usual, he deplored the alleged complicity of some mayors with illegal drug lords; therefore, they could be killed like Reynaldo Parojinog of Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental and Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte. It was as if he was alluding to the killings as state-sponsored. Unexpectedly, he likened Halili to the aforementioned mayors.
“Kanina si Halili sa Batangas. Kunwari ipa-procession ang mga adik, siya pala ‘yon,” said Duterte. “I suspect he was into drugs. I just suspect.”
The unkind and inappropriate remark alluded to the “walk of shame campaign” of Halili, where he paraded the city’s suspected drug pushers and thieves on the streets of Tanauan.
Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, singing a different tune, called Halili “a staunch ally of the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.”
If you reader were a Halili relative or a mere Batangas native who had heard the President’s tactless comment, would you still believe Roque? Even if you say “yes” and Duterte himself doesn’t think so, you could gnash your teeth in disgust.
In fact, the social media has been deluged with angry words posted by Halili’s Tanauan constituents, each one lambasting Duterte for his offensive words on the mayor whom they believe is “the truer crusader against illegal drugs.”
One of them, Emma Coronado, posted this outcry on Facebook:
“Noon akala ko malaki magagawa mo kaya binoto kita. Akala ko kakampi ka. ‘Yon pala ikaw hindi totoo, pati mayor namin sinisiraan mo. Palibhasa di na makaimik upang ipagtanggol ang sarili. Kung puedeng bawiin ko ang boto ko, sana’y ginawa ko na.”
Another FB troll reminded Duterte that it was because of Halili’s help during the campaign period for election 2016 that Duterte bagged 26,000 votes in Tanauan, besting all other presidential candidates thereat.
Other angry Tanaueños resorted to reviving on Facebook the May 16, 2017 discovery of P6.4-billion worth of shabu that had passed through the green lane of the Bureau of Customs. Although the Senate opened the investigation on alleged involvement of presidential son Paulo “Pulong” Duterte, it open-ended with the latter refusing to show an alleged “Dragon” tattoo on his back. The coded Dragon purported proves membership to the China Triad, the biggest drug syndicate in Asia.
If the President could not even comment on that P6.4-billion shabu shipment and run after suspected importers, how could he convince us he’s sincere in his “war on drugs”? Shouldn’t he have burned it instead of the smuggled luxury cars that could be legally auctioned in government’s favor?
It is public knowledge that the biggest drug lords thrive within the four corners of the New Bilibid Prison. Surprisingly, no prison authority has as yet been held accountable.
Looking back to June 28 or four days before the Halili killing, Duterte addressed the 29th Annual National Convention of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines in Panglao, Bohol, where he joked, “The earlier you do away with your mayor, the earlier you become the mayor.”
Fortunately, no Tanaueño suspects their lady vice mayor, Jhoanna Corona Villamor, to have done Halili away. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
