Navarro was killed in an ambush Friday afternoon while Cebu City police officers were bringing him to the prosecutor’s office to answer charges of mauling a massage parlor attendant and acts of lasciviousness against a masseuse.

Slain mayor David Navarro told the President in a meeting that someone is out to get him.

President Rodrigo on Monday directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to terminate its investigation on the killing of Clarin, Misamis Occidental mayor David Navarro and let the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) take over the case.

“I’d like to order the police to terminate their investigation and hand it over to the NBI whatever documents and or proof or evidence that they have in their hands,” Duterte told reporters following the oath-taking of newly-appointed government officials in Malacañang.

Duterte said it is fair for the NBI to be doing the investigation instead of the police.

Navarro was killed in an ambush Friday afternoon while Cebu City police officers were bringing him to the prosecutor’s office to answer charges of mauling a massage parlor attendant and acts of lasciviousness against a masseuse.

In the same interview, Duterte confirmed that weeks prior to his killing, Navarro met and talked to him.

“Somebody is out to get him.. ewan ko kung sino.. kung anong [I don’t know who, or what],” Duterte said recalling his conversation with the slain mayor.

The president added that Navarro supported him during the 2016 national elections.

“He was my supporter.. Mayor Navarro.. ‘yung namatay, sumuporta ‘yun sa akin last election [the one who was killed, he supported me during the last election],” Duterte said.

A patrol car carrying Navarro and two police escorts was along M. Velez Street in Barangay Guadalupe around 2 p.m. Friday, when four masked men armed with high powered guns suddenly came out of a white van behind them and opened fire at the mayor, according to reports citing an account of a witness.

Navarro, who had just attended a seminar in the city Wednesday, was killed on the spot.

The police escorts did not notice the white van and were caught by surprise by the ambush, said Police Major Eduard Sanchez of the Abellana Police Station, where Navarro was detained Thursday.

Reports also quoted Sanchez as saying that four civilians and one policeman were injured during the ambush.

Masseur John Dueñas and a masseuse of Banyan Tree Spa filed complaints of physical injury and acts of lasciviousness against Navarro with the said police station Wednesday night after the mayor, who was apparently drunk, caused a scene there.

Footage from a CCTV camera of the massage parlor saw Navarro mauling Dueñas after he told the mayor that no masseuse were available to serve him. When a masseuse was provided to Navarro, he allegedly demanded that she perform lewd acts.

Before Navarro could board a flight at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Thursday afternoon, he was arrested and detained at the police station where his mugshot was also taken. The following day, officers took him to the prosecutor’s office for inquest proceeding.