Manila: A Philippine mayor who was named as being involved in the illegal drug trade by President Rodrigo Duterte was shot dead in jail on Saturday, police said, the second local official implicated in narcotics to be killed in two weeks.
Duterte won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill 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, 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 had then surrendered to the police.
