De Lima: Duterte goaded ‘killing spree’ vs. mayors, justified Halili murder

The thousands killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war has paved the way for the recent "killing spree" against mayors, Senator Leila De Lima said.

"Ordered and goaded by Duterte, the violence of the drug war has long ago spilled over to the rest of society. It has claimed priests, lawyers, prosecutors, mayors, journalists, and labor, peasant, IP, and community leaders," the detained lawmaker said in a statement on Wednesday.

De Lima also said that Duterte "goaded" the killing of mayors, noting that the assassinations of Tanauan, Batangas mayor Antonio Halili on Monday and General Tinio, Nueva Ecija mayor Ferdinand Bote on Tuesday were carried out after Duterte joked in Bohol that vice-mayors can remove mayors by kidnapping or hexing them.

De Lima, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, also said that investigating Halili's murder would be fruitless since Duterte himself has "justified" it by saying that Halili had probably been involved in the drug trade.

"How can the police still investigate when the President has already sided with the assassin? How can there still be justice if the boss of the PNP [Philippine National Police] had already justified the act of the murderer?" De Lima said.

"Will Mayor Bote’s killing be brushed aside as just another case of a 'justified' murder?" she added.

Malacañang has said it considers these back-to-back killings as an attempt to erode public confidence in Duterte, and maintained that there is no presence of culture of impunity in the country. — Anna Felicia Bajo/BM, GMA News