PONCE: LONE METRO MAYOR VOCAL VS DRUG KILLINGS

In the past eight months, a death squad known as the Bonnet Gang has gunned down more than 60 drug suspects in Pateros.

Mayor Ike Ponce has had enough.

He has put up banners across Pateros to denounce the gang, which is named for the hoods its motorbike-riding gunmen wear to hide their identities.

Extrajudicial killings are “not the right process to stop the proliferation of illegal drugs,” read the banners. “We value human life and adhere to the rule of law.”

A lawyer by training, Ponce knows his actions could anger not just the Bonnet Gang but also someone far more powerful: President Duterte, whose “war on drugs” has killed more than 8,000 people, mostly petty drug users and dealers, since he took office on June 30.

Ponce is the only one of Metro Manila’s 17 mayors to publicly oppose the violence. In many cases, local politicians have worked with the police to draw up lists of drug users and dealers, who then often end up dead at the hands of police or vigilantes.

Duterte has put local politicians and officials under unprecedented scrutiny and pressure. Police have accused those who lack enthusiasm for the campaign, or object to its violent methods, of protecting or profiting from drug traffickers.

Methods questioned

Still, Ponce questions Duterte’s methods, even as he repeatedly stresses his support for Duterte’s goal.

“He is really trying his best to solve the drug problem,” he told Reuters. “The manner in which it’s being executed—that’s what we oppose.”

Pateros has only 63,000 people, but they are densely packed into a warren of shops, houses and shacks radiating from a 200year-old church.

The Bonnet Gang terrorizes the town with apparent impunity. Mayor Ponce blames it for all of the 64 vigilante-style killings in Pateros since the drug war began, including three in February.

Supporting the president while decrying the violence his policies have unleashed is not Ponce’s only dilemma. He must also try to reassure fearful constituents, many of whom say they believe the Bonnet Gang is secretly run and staffed by police.

“Why? Because from day one … we have not arrested anyone,” he said. “That is why people are thinking they are police officers.”

Pateros police chief Joel Villanueva told Reuters that one suspected gang member had been arrested and 11 others identified. He attributed the killings to “a feud among drug lords” and denied police involvement.

Ultimately, says Ponce, only Duterte has the power to halt the activities of the Bonnet Gang. “Whoever these people are,” he said, “it’s still in the hands of the president to stop this.”