{"id":169355,"date":"2018-07-04T23:19:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T03:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=169355"},"modified":"2018-07-04T23:19:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T03:19:22","slug":"deaths-of-2-mayors-may-be-aimed-to-shame-govt-solon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/04\/deaths-of-2-mayors-may-be-aimed-to-shame-govt-solon\/","title":{"rendered":"Deaths of 2 mayors may be aimed to shame gov\u2019t: solon"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\u201cI\u2019m<\/a>
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit alarmed because two mayors were killed in two days,\u201d Ejercito told reporters in an ambush interview at the Senate. (Photo: JV Ejercito\/Facebook)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito on Wednesday expressed alarm over the killings of two mayors this week, raising the possibility that these might be related and carried out to shame President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little bit alarmed\u00a0kasi<\/em>\u00a0two days\u00a0dalawang\u00a0<\/em>mayor (because two mayors were killed in two days),\u201d Ejercito told reporters in an ambush interview at the Senate.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas was killed by a sniper\u2019s bullet during the flag-raising ceremony at the city hall.<\/p>\n

The next day, General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote was ambushed outside the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) compound in Cabanatuan City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s alarming.\u00a0Kung sino ang gumagawa nito, I hope na magkaiba ito, sana hindi konektado. Pero parang tinitingnan ko dito<\/em>, it\u2019s intended to shame probably the government\u00a0kung saka-sakali<\/em>,\u201d Ejercito said.<\/p>\n

(Whoever is doing these, I hope they are different and are not connected. But if ever (there\u2019s a connection), I think it\u2019s intended to shame the government. We don\u2019t have proof yet, but the police has to step up.)<\/p>\n

\u201cPero wala pa naman<\/em>\u00a0tayong proof (But we still have no proof)…the PNP (Philippine National Police) has to step up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ejercito said he is hoping that he is wrong on his assumption, but if proven to be true that the killings were related, then somebody is indeed out to shame the Duterte administration.<\/p>\n

The deaths of Halili and Bote were both condemned by the administration and the opposition.<\/p>\n

But some critics are putting the blame indirectly on President Duterte for allegedly nurturing a climate of impunity due to the number of unsolved cases of killings in the government\u2019s war against illegal drugs and criminality.<\/p>\n

Halili has been tagged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as an alleged member of an illegal drug trade group.<\/p>\n

However, Bote, a first term mayor, is a member of the ruling PDP that President Duterte heads.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang has assured of a thorough police probe into the twin killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito on Wednesday expressed alarm over the killings of two mayors this week, raising the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":134876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[13135,36844],"class_list":["post-169355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-senator-joseph-victor-ejercito","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169355","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=169355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}