As another mayor is killed, opposition slams 'climate of impunity' under Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Opposition lawmakers said on Wednesday that the killing of a mayor in a road attack in a city north of Manila just a day after a city executive was shot dead in broad daylight was a sign that there was a growing "climate of impunity" under President Rodrigo Duterte, a charge the chief executive's spokesperson denied.

Ferdinand Bote was assassinated in a Nueva Ecija town, north of the Philipine capital, just as he was leaving a government office compound.

Bote became the 12th elected official killed under Duterte, who launched a brutal crackdown on illegal drugs when he assumed the presidency more than two years ago.

The Department of Interior and Local government, however, clarified that Bote was not on its list of drug-related local government officials.

His death came just a day after Antonio Halili, 72, was shot dead by a gunman during flag-raising rites in the parking lot of their city in Tanuan, Batangas, a province south of Manila.

Videos circulated online showed the moment the mayor clutched his chest upon the hit by the bullet and fell to the pavement as he was seeking shelter.

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV of the opposition bloc in the Senate expressed his concern over the growing "culture of violence" in the Philippines and warned Filipinos against being inured to it.

He said that the conscience of the nation should be bothered by the death of every local official, priest or ordinary individual.

He said that a public hearing should be conducted to evaluate the country's "festering culture of violence."

"We should look for solutions to this because the rising tide of violence in the country is already worrying," he said.

Bote was a member of the ruling PDP-Laban Party and was not known to have connections to illegal drugs.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, the president of PDP-Laban, condemned the "dastardly and cowardly act" and urged authorities to investigate the killing and deliver justice to Bote's family.

"We are worried about the escalating level of violence being experienced all over the country," he said in a message, a copy of which was sent to Philstar.com.

Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo) said that the killings in the past two days showed a "climate of impunity" that Duterte himself created.

"It seems that everyone was given a license to just kill without fear of being punished under the law," he said in a statement.

Harry Roque, a spokesman for the president, denied claims that a culture of impunity was prevailing in the Philippines.

He said that the recent killings of local government executives were an "attempt to erode the confidence in the president, whose main platform of governance rests on fighting crimes."

Roque, who is a lawyer, made the statement even if the probes into the killings were yet to conclude and release their findings.

Both Alejano and Sen. Leila de Lima said that the atmoshpere of violence was spawned by the government's crackdown on illegal drugs.

"The path to this kind of impunity has been paved with the summary execution of thousands of poor Filipinos in Duterte’s drug war," the detained senator said in a separate statement.

Both of them believe that the recent spike in violence was abetted by the president himself.

Duterte ran and won during the 2016 presidential elections on a strong anti-drugs and anti-crime platform.

Since his election, more than 4,200 Filipinos, many of whom belonged to the country's urban poor, were killed in the government's so-called war on drugs.

Rights groups dismiss this figure and cite a much higher death toll, but the government disputes their methodology in arriving at their numbers.

Just weeks ago, the country was shocked by a string of killings of priests, one of whom was shot as he was about to celebrate a mass.

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