Philippine mayor survives ambush

MANILA – Agence France-Presse

A Philippine mayor accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking survived an ambush on May 13, police said, four months after President Rodrigo Duterte publicly threatened to kill him.

Retired police chief superintendent Vicente Loot, a mayor in the central province of Cebu, had been repeatedly named by Duterte as one of the so-called “narco-generals” protecting the illegal drug trade.

Loot on May 13 was on a boat arriving with his family at a port in the Cebu town of Daanbantayan when unidentified gunmen opened fire and wounded four people, police said. The mayor was unhurt.

“We are looking at all possible motives and angles, including his being tagged in the narco-list, politics, or his previous work in the police force,” acting town police chief Senior Inspector Irish Dilem told AFP.

Loot told radio DZMM he was urging authorities to investigate the incident but refused to speculate on the motive. He denies links to drugs.

Duterte has launched an unprecedented war on drugs which has cost thousands of lives. He first named Loot in 2016 as part of his so-called “drug list” of local officials, policemen and judges whom he accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking.          Three other mayors on the list have since been shot dead, one of them while inside
a jail cell.