Duterte calls his accusers ‘unfair’ over Tanauan Mayor Halili killing

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte arrives at Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on November 16 to participate in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week. Richard Madelo/ Presidential Photo

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, November 16, said people who accused him to be behind the killing of Tanauan, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili were being “unfair” to him.

Duterte said this in a speech before the Filipino community in Papua New Guinea, where he was attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader’s Meeting.

“Kagaya nung si Mayor Halili ng Tanauan, naga — nag-ano siya Bayang magiliw… Bog! Patay siya. Tapos ako ang pagbintangan. Unfair sila sa akin (Like Mayor Halili of Tanauan, he was just singing the national anthem then… Bog! He died and they pinned the blame on me. They are unfair to me),” the President said.

Halili, known for his “walk of shame” campaign,” was shot dead in broad light while attending a flag-raising ceremony at his town’s city hall in July.

He was stripped off of control over the police force for his supposed involvement in illegal drugs.

It was Duterte who claimed that the slain mayor had ties to the drug trade, and that Halili got what he deserved.

“Kunwari ipa-procession ang mga addicts, siya pala, siya ‘yun (He pretended to shame addicts by parading them, but he was involved in illegal drugs himself, it was him),” Duterte said in a speech last July.

“I suspect he was into drugs. I just suspect,” he added.

Halili’s daughter, Angeline “Sweet” Halili, however, said drug allegations thrown against her father were not true. The President, she added, was fed with false information about the slain mayor.

The young Halili is eyeing for the position her father left behind. She filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for the 2019 polls at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Tanauan City last October 11.

Duterte, in his speech, also denied any involvement in the killings of local chief executives.

“Wala akong alam. Ako, magsabi man lang ako ‘patayin kita’ pero pantakot man lang ‘yan, istorya man lang ‘yan, maniwala ka pala? Kung sino ang nagpatay eh ‘yan mga pulis o tanungin mo (I know nothing. I may have said ‘I will kill you’ but that was only meant to scare you. That is not true, I did not know you will believe it? Ask the police on who killed them),” he said.

Akbayan Representative Tom Villarin earlier blamed the President for the killing of Halili and claimed that Duterte abandoned the rule of law when he issued the “free license” to kill.

“The free license was given by President Duterte himself by making it clear that no one will face legal repercussions for the extrajudicial killings that are done in pursuit of his anti-illegal drug policy and tagged in the so-called Duterte’s reversed ‘Schindler’s list’ where those in it are not for saving,” he earlier said.

For Senator Leila de Lima, Duterte may not have used a gun to kill Halili, but he murdered the local executive through his “words.”

“Ordinarily, it might be true that words do not kill. But when one is the President, words become orders. This is how Duterte gives the killers their mandate to kill and protects them from whatever semblance of the law still remains under his administration,” she had stressed.

Meanwhile, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, in his previous statement, also accused the Chief Executive of turning the country into “murder capital of Asia.”

“Duterte’s culture of violence is upon us. No one is safe now. Regardless, whether Mayor Halili is involved in the illegal drug trade, nothing justifies this murder,” he said.

[READ: Opposition solons condemn murder of Tanauan Mayor Halili]