Philippines mayor Antonio Halili shot dead at flag raising ceremony

The sniper was not caught

A mayor of a city in the Philippines was shot dead in front of hundreds of people in broad daylight, at a flag-raising ceremony in front of a City Hall as the national anthem was being sung.

Antonio Halili, the provincial mayor of Tanauan city in Batangas province south of Manila, who has been accused in the past of having links to the drug industry, is believed to have been killed by a sniper.

The 72-year-old, who was also known for controversially parading drug suspects around to “shame” them in campaigns condemned by human rights activists, was shot in front of a crowd of nearly 300 people, including employees and newly elected officials.

Chaos ensued as people screamed and ran as they realised what had happened, video footage of the incident showed.

A video filmed by a person attending the event shows people singing in unison at the ceremony as music plays. Suddenly a gunshot is heard.

The music slowly comes to a stop as people realise something has gone wrong. People begin to scream, as the person filming reacts in shock and the footage comes to a shaky end.

Officials are keen to establish if his killing had anything to do with allegations over drug links. In the Philippines thousands of drug suspects have been killed in clashes with police since President Rodrigo Duterte came into power – reports which officials have challenged.

The shooter was not caught, though police searched the area.

Village leader Rico Alcazar, who was in standing behind the Mr Halili when the incident happened on Monday morning, said: "I didn't know that it was gunfire until people started screaming 'Somebody's shooting, somebody's shooting' while running in all directions and I saw my mayor slumped on the ground

"Everybody was shocked and it took sometime before some carried the mayor and brought him away in a car."

Mr Halili's bodyguards opened fire towards a grassy hill where the gunshot was apparently fired, adding to the bedlam, Mr Alcazar said by phone.

Mobile phone footage video shot by Mr Alcazar shows a few men standing around Mr Halili on the ground as gunfire rings out continuously and people cry, scream, run and take cover during the commotion.

A man shouts: “The mayor is dead, the mayor was shot,” and another desperately calls for a car to take Halili to the hospital. A third man starts blaming his companions for the security breach.

"They did not see anybody approach him. They just heard a gunshot, so the assumption or allegation was it could have been a sniper shot," the national police chief, Director-General Oscar Albayalde, said at a news conference in Manila, adding that an investigation was underway.

The bullet hit a mobile phone in Mr Halili's coat pocket then pierced his chest, according to police.

General Albayalde said investigators would try to determine if the killing was connected to Mr Halili's anti-drug campaign.

Two years ago, Mr Halili ordered drug suspects to be paraded in public in Tanauan, a small city about 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Manila, in a campaign that was dubbed "walks of shame". The suspects were forced to wear cardboard signs that read "I'm a pusher, don't emulate me" in a campaign that alarmed human rights officials.

Police officials, however, also linked Mr Halili to illegal drugs which he strongly denied. He said at the time that he would resign and would be willing to be publicly paraded as a drug suspect if police could come up with evidence to support the allegation.

Mr Haili's name was reportedly on a "narco-list" presented by the President in 2017.

Mr Halili's unusual campaign drew attention at a time of growing alarm over the rising number of killings of drug suspects under President Rodrigo Duterte. Since Mr Duterte took office in 2016, more than 4,200 drug suspects had been killed in clashes with police, alarming human rights groups, Western governments and UN rights watchdogs. At least two town mayors linked to drugs were among the dead.

Human rights groups have reported much higher death tolls, although Mr Duterte and his officials have questioned the accuracy of those reports. They said the suspects died because they opened fire and sparked gun battles with authorities, although human rights groups have accused police of extrajudicial killings.

His killing came a few weeks after a Catholic priest was shot and killed while preparing to celebrate Mass at the altar of a village chapel in northern Nueva Ecija province.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief, urged the police to impose stricter firearms control in light of the killings.

"The killing of priests, prosecutors and former and incumbent local officials in broad daylight and in full view of the public may be suggestive of the impunity and brazenness of those responsible for such acts," Mr Lacson said.

"The Philippine National Police should feel challenged, if not taunted," he said. "And they must immediately consider stricter firearms control strategies before similar killings could reach ubiquitous levels."

Associated Press contributed to this report.