{"id":169105,"date":"2018-07-03T22:02:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-04T02:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=169105"},"modified":"2018-07-03T22:02:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T02:02:27","slug":"palace-defends-duterte-remarks-on-batangas-mayor-slay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/03\/palace-defends-duterte-remarks-on-batangas-mayor-slay\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace defends Duterte remarks on Batangas mayor slay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Malacanang<\/a>
Malacanang on Tuesday defended the remarks made by President Rodrigo Duterte hours after controversial Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili was assassinated while attending a flag raising ceremony last Monday. (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malacanang on Tuesday defended the remarks made by President Rodrigo Duterte hours after controversial Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili was assassinated while attending a flag raising ceremony last Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will quote from the translation of what the President said, \u2018suspicion\u2019. So, it\u2019s a suspicion,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

During the 58th Founding Anniversary of Southern Leyte in Maasin City, Duterte said Halili\u2019s killing could be related to illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard today (Monday) that Halili has died. But we\u2019re suspecting that it\u2019s drug-related. It\u2019s just a suspicion,\u201d the President said in his speech before a mammoth crowd.<\/p>\n

Duterte said Halili was \u201cputting up a show\u201d when the Tanauan mayor paraded drug offenders and common crime suspects as a measure to rid the city of unlawful activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all for show, as he made those drug addicts walk in a procession and get flogged. It wasn\u2019t really\u2026it\u2019s him. It\u2019s really him,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

Despite his controversial \u2018walk of shame\u2019 campaign, Halili has been included in the government\u2019s so-called \u201cnarco-list,\u201d prompting the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to strip him of police powers.<\/p>\n

Roque said government authorities and law enforcers are committed to leave no stone unturned in finding the truth behind the murder of Halili.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise of the government is there will be substantial and depth investigation so that we will know who was really behind the killing of Mayor Halili,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Asked if the President will visit the wake of slain mayor, Roque said: \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s not included in his schedules and we have not talked about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Roque advised the public to better wait for the final results of the investigation before making any conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Mayor Halili, you really get mixed messages because he had a walk of shame which was the subject of consternation as far as human groups are concerned; but at the same time he was in the narco-list maintained by the government,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque described as \u2018premature\u2019 Senator Kiko Pangilinan\u2019s statement that Halili\u2019s death was a clear example of extra judicial killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cPremature. We don\u2019t know what is the reason behind the killing. He is speculating as well. So his speculation is as good as anybody\u2019s speculation,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He assured the Palace \u201ccannot sanction this type of killing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis happened in broad daylight, obviously utilizing a very skilled sharp shooter and it\u2019s always the obligation to take steps to investigate, punish the perpetrators because we need to instill fear anew in the hearts of the killers,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think the position of the Palace to investigate this can stand hand in hand with the suspicion of the President,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malacanang on Tuesday defended the remarks made by President Rodrigo Duterte hours after controversial Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":169106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[52437,13135],"class_list":["post-169105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-antonio-halili","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}