MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine police say van-riding assailants have gunned down the vice mayor of a small city south of Manila in the third such brazen assaults on local officials this week that have sparked an alarm.

Police say Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan of Trece Martires city and his driver were riding in a pickup van when they were shot and killed Saturday in front of a hospital in his city in Cavite province. The killers escaped.

Mayor Antonio Halili was gunned down while attending a flag-raising ceremony in his city of Tanauan south of Manila on Monday. Mayor Ferdinand Bote of northern General Tinio town was shot and killed in an SUV the following day by motorcycle-riding assassins. The killers of both mayors remain at large. </s> (UPDATED) Vice Mayor Alex Lubigan is the 5th vice mayor killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Vice Mayor Alex Lubigan of Trece Martires, Cavite, was shot dead on Saturday, July 7, the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Calabarzon confirmed.

According to an initial spot report, Lubigan was on board a black Toyota Hilux when a black Montero fired at the victim's vehicle "and resulted in his unfortunate death."



The incident happened past 3 pm on Saturday in front of the Korean Hospital on Indang Road, Barangay Luciano in Trece Martires.

The police said in an update that ‪a certain Romulo Guillemer, who was with Lubigan, was rushed to the General Emilio Aguinaldo Memorial Hospital, and was in critical condition.

Lubigan's death comes in the same week of the assassinations of two mayors, Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas; and Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija.

Lubigan is the 5th vice mayor to be killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office. Lubigan's death brings to 15 the number of mayors and vice mayors killed in the Duterte administration. – With reports from Rambo Talabong/Rappler.com </s> Published: 4:45 p.m., July 7, 2018 | Updated: 12:32 a.m., July 8, 2018

Gunmen peppered the vehicle carrying the vice mayor of Trece Martires City in Cavite province with bullets in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon, killing the local official instantly, police said.

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Alexander Lubigan, 44, was with his driver-bodyguard Romulo Guillemer and security aide Romeo Edrinal when the gunmen blocked the path of his black Toyota Hi-lux pickup truck and opened fire around 3 p.m. in front of Korea-Philippines Friendship Hospital on the Trece Martires-Indang Road at Barangay Luciano in the province’s capital.

Lubigan became the third high official of a local government unit (LGU) to be killed in a week after Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas province, and Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija province.

The gunmen escaped toward Indang town aboard a black sport utility vehicle, police said.

Third-termer

Senior Supt. William Segun, Cavite police director, said Lubigan died on the spot while Guillemer, 50, died a few hours later at General Emilio Aguinaldo Memorial Hospital in the city.

Edrinal, 56, survived and was being treated in the city’s Korea-funded hospital.

Lubigan, who ran in the 2016 elections under the United Nationalist Alliance, was on his third term as vice mayor.

Malacañang on Saturday condemned Lubigan’s assassination.

“We ask the leadership of the Philippine National Police to conduct a fair investigation and spare no effort in getting to the bottom of this latest crime,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

“We must band together and put an end to the worrisome incidents of violence involving local politicians,” he added.

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Earlier kills

On Monday, Halili was shot dead by a sniper during flag-raising rites at Tanauan City Hall, while Bote was ambushed the next day by motorcycle-riding gunmen as he left the National Irrigation Administration compound in Cabanatuan City in his sport utility vehicle.

At least 10 town and city mayors have been killed since President Duterte took office in June 2016.

Halili, who was included in the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of “narcopoliticians,” was stripped of supervisory powers over the local police amid allegations he was involved in the drug trade.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the PNP and a friend of Halili, called on the authorities to “bring the bastards responsible [for the three local officials’ deaths], including their masterminds before the bar of justice.”

“Let’s hope and pray that the successive killings of elected officials are not symptomatic of a bloody midterm election next year,” he said.

Rising anxiety

In a radio interview also on Saturday, Lacson said Halili had told him that he was worried he might go up against a retired general in next year’s elections.

Cavite Gov. Jesus Crispin Remulla said in a phone interview that Lubigan was on his way to a gym when the gunmen struck.

“[I’ve] never heard of any adverse behavior from him,” Remulla said of his “good friend” Lubigan.

Trece Martires City Mayor Melandres de Sagun, a party mate of Lubigan, was on leave abroad, according to Remulla who signed the mayor’s travel documents two weeks ago.

Supt. Chitadel Gaoiran, spokesperson for the Calabarzon police, said investigators were primarily looking into politics as the motive of the killing. He did not elaborate.

The brazenness of the killings have increased anxieties among elected public officials who now fear for their lives when they venture out of their homes, according to Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap).

Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara, president of Ulap, strongly condemned the killings of Halili, Bote and Lubigan, saying the incidents seriously affected the work of local officials. —With reports from Christine O. Avendaño, Michael Jaucian and Inquirer Research

/atm /pdi

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MOST READ </s> Filipino vice mayor killed; 3rd such gun attack of the week

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Van-riding assailants gunned down the vice mayor of a small Philippine city south of Manila on Saturday, police said, the third such brazen killing of a local official in the past week.

Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan of Trece Martires city and his driver were riding in a pickup van when they were shot and killed in front of a hospital in his city in Cavite province, according to a police report. The gunmen escaped.

A special team of investigators was formed to try to identify the killers and establish the motive for the attack in one of the bloodiest weeks for local officials. The series of killings has renewed calls for more effective gun control in a country long plagued by a surfeit of unlicensed firearms.

On Monday, Mayor Antonio Halili was shot in the heart and killed while singing the national anthem in a flag-raising ceremony in his city of Tanauan, south of the capital. The next day, Mayor Ferdinand Bote of northern General Tinio town was shot and killed in an SUV by motorcycle-riding assassins. The killers of both mayors remain at large.

Video taken by witnesses of the moments when Halili and Bote were killed have been widely viewed online and renewed fears of unabated lawlessness.

The back-to-back killings prompted an opposition senator to call the Philippines — where more than 4,000 mostly impoverished drug suspects have been killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown — the "murder capital of Asia."

At least nine mayors have been killed under Duterte, who took office in June 2016, including four who have been linked by Duterte and authorities to illegal drugs. Halili had been included on a government list of suspected drug personalities, but he had vehemently denied any involvement.

An association of local officials has asked Duterte's administration to be allowed to vet the government's list of drug-linked officials and to be notified when suspects are added or removed from the list. Human rights watchdogs regard it as a "hit list," a charge denied by law enforcers. </s> In this June 12, 2018 file photo, Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during the 120th Philippine Independence day celebration at the Emilio Aguinaldo shrine in Kawit, Cavite Philippines. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Gunmen killed a city vice mayor in the Philippines on Saturday, police said, less than a week after two mayors were shot dead in separate incidents, including one President Rodrigo Duterte said may have had links to illegal drugs.

The latest attack brought to 15 the number of mayors and vice mayors killed since Mr. Duterte unleashed his deadly anti-narcotics campaign when he came to power in 2016, according to CNN Philippines, citing a tally of its own research team.

Mr. Duterte has a watchlist of local officials suspected to have links to illegal drug trade.

The daughter of one of the other victims this week said her father was not involved in drugs and police investigators said they had not received any information linking the other to the trade.

Police have killed more than 4,200 suspected drugs dealers and users since Mr. Duterte came to power. Several thousand more have been murdered by unknown gunmen, described by authorities as vigilantes or rival gang members.

Police have denied the allegations by rights groups and critics of the campaign that some of the killings were summary executions, saying they had to use deadly force because the suspects, who were armed, had violently resisted arrest.

Alexander Lubigan, vice mayor of Trece Martires City in Cavite, south of Manila, was in a sports utility vehicle when unidentified gunmen aboard another SUV opened fire, police said.

The motive and identities of the gunmen in the latest killing were still being investigated, said Chief Superintendent Edward Carranza, a police regional director.

A companion of Lubigan in the vehicle, described by media reports as his driver and bodyguard, was also killed.

On Monday, Mayor Antonio Halili (72), of Tanauan City in Batangas, south of Manila, was hit by a bullet in the chest during a flag-raising ceremony in front of the city hall.

Halili had gained prominence in 2016 for parading drug suspects in the streets of Tanauan, but he was included in Duterte's watchlist of local leaders.

Mr. Duterte has said the mayor may have had some drug involvement and his campaign to parade suspects was a ploy to convince police he was not engaged in the illegal drug trade. Halili's daughter denied her father had links to the drugs trade.

On Tuesday, gunmen on a motorcycle killed Mayor Ferdinand Bote (57), of General Tinio town in northern Nueva Ecija province, but police said he was not linked to the drug trade. </s> FILE - In this July 4, 2018, file photo, Philippine National Police SWAT members check the site where Tanauan city Mayor Antonio Halili was killed during a flag-raising ceremony by an unidentified gunman at the Tanauan City Hall in Tanauan city, Batangas province south of Manila, Philippines. Van-riding assailants gunned down the vice mayor of a small Philippine city south of Manila on Saturday, July 7, 2018, police said, the third such brazen killing of a local official in the past week. less

FILE - In this July 4, 2018, file photo, Philippine National Police SWAT members check the site where Tanauan city Mayor Antonio Halili was killed during a flag-raising ceremony by an unidentified gunman at the ... more

FILE - In this July 4, 2018, file photo, Gina Halili, the widow of Tanauan city Mayor Antonio Halili, touches the face of her husband during its wake at their residence in Tanauan city, Batangas province south of Manila, Philippines. Van-riding assailants gunned down the vice mayor of a small Philippine city south of Manila on Saturday, July 7, 2018, police said, the third such brazen killing of a local official in the past week. less

FILE - In this July 4, 2018, file photo, Gina Halili, the widow of Tanauan city Mayor Antonio Halili, touches the face of her husband during its wake at their residence in Tanauan city, Batangas province south ... more

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Van-riding assailants gunned down the vice mayor of a small Philippine city south of Manila on Saturday, police said, the third such brazen killing of a local official in the past week.

Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan of Trece Martires city and his driver were riding in a pickup van when they were shot and killed in front of a hospital in his city in Cavite province, according to a police report. The gunmen escaped.

A special team of investigators was formed to try to identify the killers and establish the motive for the attack in one of the bloodiest weeks for local officials. The series of killings has renewed calls for more effective gun control in a country long plagued by a surfeit of unlicensed firearms.

On Monday, Mayor Antonio Halili was shot in the heart and killed while singing the national anthem in a flag-raising ceremony in his city of Tanauan, south of the capital. The next day, Mayor Ferdinand Bote of northern General Tinio town was shot and killed in an SUV by motorcycle-riding assassins. The killers of both mayors remain at large.

Video taken by witnesses of the moments when Halili and Bote were killed have been widely viewed online and renewed fears of unabated lawlessness.

The back-to-back killings prompted an opposition senator to call the Philippines — where more than 4,000 mostly impoverished drug suspects have been killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown — the "murder capital of Asia."

At least nine mayors have been killed under Duterte, who took office in June 2016, including four who have been linked by Duterte and authorities to illegal drugs. Halili had been included on a government list of suspected drug personalities, but he had vehemently denied any involvement.

An association of local officials has asked Duterte's administration to be allowed to vet the government's list of drug-linked officials and to be notified when suspects are added or removed from the list. Human rights watchdogs regard it as a "hit list," a charge denied by law enforcers. </s> MANILA: Gertrudes Batocabe never wanted to enter the Philippines’ cutthroat politics, but after her husband was shot dead, allegedly by a rival in next week’s midterm election, she felt bound to take his place.

"It’s not really automatic that the wife takes over, but in this case I cannot see my opponents sitting down (quitting)" she told AFP, holding back tears.

"I have a lot of things to do for Rodel, for the people of Daraga," she said, referring to her husband and the central city where she is running for mayor.

In taking over his candidacy, Batocabe was among at least half a dozen women standing in for their slain husbands this year -- a long tradition in the Philippines’ notoriously deadly politics.

Dozens of people, including candidates and their supporters, routinely get killed in the fierce competition for elected posts that are a source of wealth in a nation with deep poverty.

Over 18,000 seats, ranging from local councils to the upper house Senate, are up for grabs when the nation’s more than 61 million voters are called to cast ballots on Monday.

One widow styled her campaign as a quest for justice for her husband, who was murdered last year after announcing plans to run for mayor in Trece Martires, a city south of Manila.

"My name is Gemma Lubigan. I will take up the fight of Vice-Mayor Alex Lubigan," she told a cheering crowd at a recent campaign rally.

A political rival, the sitting mayor of Trece Martires, was initially fingered as a suspect, but prosecutors have declined to file charges.

Political widowhood reached its apogee in the Philippines in 1986, when Corazon Aquino took power after a bloodless popular revolt that toppled the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The upheaval was triggered by the 1983 assassination of her opposition leader husband Benigno Aquino at the hands of security forces loyal to Marcos, forcing her into politics.

In the Philippines, widow candidates carry a powerful aura of suffering and perseverance that resonates with voters in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation, experts say.

"It works especially in the Philippine context because widowhood has symbolic elements that are very much valued in politics," said University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco told AFP.

The Philippines also lacks a strong party system so family dynasties play a similar role, with wives called on to assume the clan’s figurehead position after a slaying.

Some of Asia’s most powerful political families have been marked by the same phenomenon. India’s Sonia Gandhi was pushed into politics after her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated.

Benazir Bhutto led Pakistan’s return to democracy about a decade after her father was ousted as prime minister in a coup and subsequently executed. Political analyst Franco said the rise of the Philippine widows also marks a way into the nation’s male-dominated political area.

"Many of our female politicians, especially at the local level, are members of political dynasties," she added.

Before Rodel’s murder, the plan was for the Batocabes to groom their first-born son, a newly minted lawyer, to follow his father’s footsteps into politics.

But that changed after Rodel, who was an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, was gunned down days before Christmas while handing out gifts to elderly and disabled Daraga residents.

The incumbent mayor of Daraga is charged with orchestrating the killing, leaving Batocabe acutely aware of the risks she faces in running.

"I’m careful, is the word, but I’ve been given so much protection by the president," she said, referring to an armed security detail. </s> MANILA: A Philippine mayor President Rodrigo Duterte named as being involved in the illegal drug trade was shot dead in jail Saturday, police said, the second local official implicated in narcotics to be killed in two weeks.

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state, and has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has left more than 4,000 people dead.

He had named several local officials, policemen and judges as being involved in the narcotics trade and urged them to surrender.

In August, he accused Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town in the central island of Leyte, and his son of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giving police a “shoot on sight” order if the two resisted arrest.

Mayor Espinosa then surrendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested last month.

But early Saturday morning, police said Espinosa was killed in his cell in the provincial jail after he shot at officers during a search for illegal firearms.

“He fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the mayor’s death,” chief inspector Leo Laraga of the regional police told Agence France-Presse.

He added that another inmate accused of drug trafficking was also killed, after he too fired at the officers.

The national police said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding Espinosa’s death as well as possible collusion between guards and inmates to get guns and drugs into the jail.

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa previously said Espinosa had been listed in official records as a “drug protector”, whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is set to return to the Philippines to face drug trafficking charges.

In August, six of the Espinosas’ supporters died in a gunfight with police outside the mayor’s property in Albuera where officers said they recovered guns and several grenades.

Another mayor accused of drug trafficking was killed in the southern Philippines in late October.

Police said Samsudin Dimaukom and his security personnel opened fire after anti-narcotics police stopped their vehicles at a checkpoint on suspicion they were transporting illegal drugs. AFP </s> A mayor, tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte earlier as head of a major drugs syndicate, and 13 others were killed in pre-dawn police raids yesterday.

Police said Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz city, in southern Mindanao island, was killed when he and his men traded gunfire with a team sent to arrest him at around 2.30am.

"It was dark. There was a power outage. Then we were greeted by gunshots," senior superintendent Jason de Guzman, head of the Misamis Occidental provincial police, said in a radio interview.

Parojinog was gunned down, along with his wife Susan and brother Octavio, a provincial board member.

Also killed were Mr J. R. Millanar, a cameraman of Lumad TV, and Ozamiz information officer Mona Parojinog. Four of the other fatalities were members of a local auxiliary force, and it was unclear if they were killed while defending Parojinog.

Parojinog's daughter and vice-mayor Nova who was at the scene, was arrested and detained. Her brother Reynaldo Jr later surrendered.

Parojinog was the third mayor to be killed in Mr Duterte's list of "narco-politicians".

Last October, Mr Samsudin Dimaukom, mayor of the southern town of Saudi Ampatuan, was killed in a shoot-out at a police checkpoint on suspicion that he and his security personnel were transporting illegal drugs.

That same month, a police team killed Mr Rolando Espinosa, mayor of Albuera town, central Philippines, inside his jail cell. Circumstances surrounding his death led to a congressional probe into allegations he was summarily executed.

But Mr Duterte refused to accept results suggesting foul play, and even pushed to reinstate the head of the team that killed Mr Espinosa.

At least 3,000 have been killed, either in police raids or by unnamed vigilantes, in Mr Duterte's drug war. A case alleging "crimes against humanity" has been filed against Mr Duterte before an international court. The President has responded by hitting back at his critics, often with expletive-laden tirades.

The Parojinog family members were known thugs in Misamis Occidental in southern Philippines. In the 1970s, they were employed by political kingpins and businessmen as bodyguards and "muscle". The military also used them to fight Muslim secessionists.

In 1986, Parojinog's father, Octavio Sr, formed the core of an anti-communist group known as the "Kuratong Baleleng" (bamboo alarm bell).

The Kuratong Baleleng managed to drive out communist partisans from Ozamiz. But with arms and money supplied by the military, and under government protection, the group managed to quickly expand its illegal operations in the city. They extorted money from businessmen and engaged in robberies.

With its growing notoriety, the Kuratong Baleleng was ordered to disband in 1988. By then, it had more than 316 members and at least 65 assault rifles. But instead of disbanding, it broke into cells that spread out of Ozamiz.

Two of Octavio Sr's sons, Reynaldo and Renato, formed their own groups that concentrated on bank robberies in metropolitan Manila and other big cities in the Philippines.

The elder Parojinog, meanwhile, was left with Ozamiz city as his turf for extortion and gambling.

In 1990, a warrant of arrest was served on Octavio Sr for "illegal possession of explosives with destructive arson". He resisted arrest and drew out a hand grenade. He was shot and killed.

Renato took over leadership of the gang. He was killed by hired guns in 2002.

Leadership then passed on to Reynaldo, who took to politics as leverage to protect his family's illegal trade.

The Kuratong Baleleng came to the nation's attention in 1995 when 11 of its members were killed as they were being transported to jail in what was believed to be a rub-out.

Criminal charges were filed against the head of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission, Mr Panfilo Lacson, and 33 other police officers.

The charges were dismissed by a lower court. Mr Lacson is now a senator.
Alexander Lubigan, Vice Mayor of Trece Martires, Philippines, is assassinated in an ambush.