Tanauan Mayor Antonio Halili shot

Police in CALABARZON are looking at three persons of interest in Mayor Halili's murder on Monday, state-run PTV-4 reports.

Police are also reportedly looking at politics and illegal drugs as possible motives.

Multiple reports say Mayor of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Ferdinand Bote was gunned down on Tuesday afternoon.

Bote was reportedly shot in front of the city of the hospital of Cabanatuan City.

The daughter of slain Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili says President Rodrigo Duterte was fed with false information on her father’s alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade.

In an interview on ABS-CBN, Angeline Halili says the drug allegations against her father were “hearsay.”

“I cannot blame our president for saying that if he was being given wrong information and information meant to hurt and malign people who are doing good,” she says, adding that Duterte should visit them to know the truth.

Human Rights Watch says that the killing of Mayor Antonio Halili demands immediate and thorough investigation by authorities like the thousands of killings in the government’s “war on drugs.”

The group adds that while it does not agree with Halili’s method of dealing with illegal drugs in Tanauan City, the death of the local executive is “condemnable.”

“He may have deprived many Tanauan residents of due process but that doesn’t mean he should be deprived of it too.”

Mayor Halili has been pronounced dead, multiple reports say, after he was shot during today's flag-raising ceremony in Tanauan, Batangas.

Halili was among the five mayors from Southern Tagalog who lost police control in October last year over alleged drug links.

READ: Who's who: 5 mayors who lost police control over alleged drug links

The mayor was dubbed as Tanauan City's version of President Duterte for his campaign against illegal drugs, which included the "Flores de Pusher" walk of shame campaign in early 2016.

He was not in the August 2016 narco-list.

Tanauan, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili was shot today during the flag-raising ceremony.