Environment and Natural ResourcesSecretary Roy Cimatu welcomes President Rodrigo Duterte in Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife during the celebration of the DENR Anniversary yesterday which also happens to be Cimatu’s birthday

Local executives under the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) have sought a dialogue with President Rodrigo Duterte to air their concern on the so-called narco list or the dossier on officials with links to the drugs trade.

After back-to-back assassinations of Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili and General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote, LMP president Socorro, Oriental Mindoro Mayor Marie Fe Brondial said the group sent a letter to Malacañang requesting a meeting with the President to present their concerns over the list and the growing unrest among local chief executives.

Brondial said fear for their lives was the primary concern of town mayors following the deaths of several local officials – including those who the President had alleged were involved in the drug trade.

Both mayors were killed over the week and one of them, Halili, was included in Duterte’s list of officials with alleged drug links.

“They are afraid, particularly those whose names are on the list… I pity them. They told me ‘Mayor, we are not involved in that (drug trade), why were we included?’” Brondial said.

The LMP president is also urging the President to return the supervision of police to mayors who were accused of being involved in the drugs trade. The LMP has 68 leaders of municipalities as members.

Halili was among local officials stripped of police control as a result of his alleged links to illegal drugs. He had denied any involvement in the narcotics trade.

Aside from Halili, mayors on the “narco-list” who had met violent deaths were Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte; Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog of Ozamiz City, and Samsudin Dimaukom of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

“If there are mistakes made by our mayors, killing them should not be the solution,” Brondial said.

Interior and Local Government officer-in-charge and retired military chief Eduardo Año urged local chief executives to seek help from their police forces should they receive death threats.

Año, in a radio interview, said mayors and local officials can ask for additional security and assistance should they receive threats, noting that officials included in the list of suspected people involved in drugs are prone to receiving death threats.

“You know if you are involved in a drug syndicate, there are several things that could happen since there is the drugs war,” Ano said.

“Those threatened should coordinate with the PNP…That is important.”

He added threatened officials should cooperate fully with the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) should they receive threats on their lives.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, however, said the recent killings could be attributed to politics and should not be blamed on Mr. Duterte’s strong stand against criminality.

Administration critics were quick to blame Duterte for their deaths, alleging his strong stand against criminals has created a climate of impunity.

The political opponents of Mr. Duterte added the recent events were “inspired” by the President’s supposed threats against local executives engaged in criminal activities or are coddling criminal syndicates.

Lacson, however, belied the allegations, pointing out that local politics may have played a big hand in the recent killings.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s not where it came from,” Lacson said in an ambush interview at the Senate.

“Especially in local politics, if the political battle is very fierce, they resort to killing each other,” he added.

The deaths of Halili and Bote were the third and fourth recorded killings of local politicians this year.

Bote, a first term mayor, was a partymate of Duterte at the PDP while Halili had been included on the government’s narco list.

Last May 12, former La Union Second District Rep. Eufranio Eriguel was gunned down while attending a barangay election gathering and Buenavista, Bohol Mayor Ronald Tirol was shot dead in a cockpit arena last May 27.

Prior to their deaths, Halili, Eriguel and Tirol had been receiving death threats even before Duterte came to power.

Eriguel and Tirol survived previous attempts on their lives; with the former surviving a bomb attack in April 2016, and the latter surviving an assassination attempt, also in a cockpit arena, in 2014.

While Lacson believed local politics might be behind the assassinations, he said it is incumbent upon the PNP to act on it.

Alvin Murcia, Mario J. Mallari, Angie M. Rosales, Elmer Navarro Manuel