Opposition links Halili murder to 'climate of killing and impunity'

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the opposition claimed that the killing of Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili can be attributed to the “culture of violence” they said President Rodrigo Duterte perpetuates.

Halili, who was in the news for parading suspected drug users and dealers as well as other crime suspects through the streets of Tanauan, was gunned down during the flag-raising ceremony at city hall on Monday.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday raised the possibility that the killing of Tanauan City mayor “rode on the wave of killings in the country.”

“It could be directly attributed to the climate of killing and impunity created and nurtured by President Rodrigo Duterte, which has disturbingly devalued human life,” she said.

Sen. Leila De Lima accused the chief executive of murdering Halili “with his words.”

“Ordinarily, it might be true that words do not kill. But when one is the president, words become orders. This is how Duterte gives the killers their mandate to kill and protects them from whatever semblance of the law still remains under his administration,” De Lima, a vocal critic of administration despite being in jail for drug-related cases, said.

The president has maintained that it is legal for him to threaten "criminals" with death and has also challenged critics to prove that he has personally ordered anyone killed. His comments have long been played down by supporters as expressions of frustration and as part of his personality.

Hours after the killing of Halili, Duterte said that the mayor’s murder could be related to illegal drugs.

“Earlier, it was Halili of Batangas. His procession of drug suspects was just a front. It’s him,” Duterte said.

But moments after claiming that Halili was involved in illegal drugs, the chief executive clarified that his comment was just a suspicion that the mayor's murder is related to drugs.

Last week, Duterte jokingly told vice mayors to replace their non-performing mayors by kidnapping or hexing them.

READ: Duterte fed with false info on Halili, says slain mayor’s daughter

‘No one is safe’

Hontiveros and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, both of the Senate minority bloc, stressed that Halili's murder shows Filipinos are not safe.

“If mayors, other local government officials and even priests can be killed in broad daylight, the threat to ordinary civilians is that much greater,” Hontiveros said.

Trillanes accused Duterte of turning the country into the “murder capital of Asia” amid the killings of alleged drug personalities, government officials and priests.

“Now, for someone who promised to restore peace and order in our country during the campaign, it is ironic for a lot of people that Duterte has actually turned the Philippines into the murder capital of Asia,” the president’s critic said.

Both urged the Philippine National Police to bring the perpetrators of Halili’s killing to justice.

READ: Rights groups, lawmakers denounce killing of Mayor Halili