President’s order to shoot ‘narco mayors’

What’s chilling for the mayors was President Rody’s directive for police chiefs of towns and cities to shoot narco-mayors

President Rody Duterte’s more than four hours separate meetings Wednesday with some 1,000 mayors in three batches from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in Malacañang’s Rizal Hall was strictly confidential.

But the Inquirer said accounts emerged immediately after the closed-door event, mostly from mayors who gave interviews on condition of anonymity.

Why didn’t they wish to be identified? President Rody, one account said, threatened to kill mayors involved in illegal drugs, the narco-mayors.

Duterte had given advance warning to the mayors of what to expect in a speech on Monday in which he urged those involved in illegal drugs to repent, resign or die.

“I will talk to them. With the thick document I showed you, I will tell them, ‘Look for your name there, mayor, you son of a bitch. If your name is there, you will have a problem. I will really kill you,’” he said, adding. “I will call them and lock them up.”

But look at what happened to Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera, Leyte who was locked up in a Baybay City jail.

What’s chilling for the mayors was President Rody’s directive for police chiefs of towns and cities to shoot narco-mayors. “He said he will protect the policemen and even grant them pardon if they will be convicted,” a mayor said.

How would this be done? Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City in Batangas said, quoting the President, if the mayor is proven to be involved in illegal drugs, “the chief of police will be replaced and the new one will be the one to shoot the mayor.”

Halili said the chandeliered Rizal Hall was very quiet when Duterte said that. “Would you still raise a question? He was already very clear,” Halili said.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said President Duterte’s directive to chiefs of police to shoot narco-mayors was “not a marching order.”

It’s quite reassuring for the mayors as more than 6,000 people have been killed since the President mounted his campaign against illegal drugs that he called a “pandemic” in July.