DILG says slain Nueva Ecija is not in gov’t narco list

July 5, 2018

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) OIC-Secretary Eduardo Ano said Wedmesday Gen Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote is not included on the narco list of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“You know being a mayor is one of the most difficult government positions. If you are really good, others are planning something bad against you, specially the criminal underworld, but Mayor Bote is not in the narco list,” he said.

Bote was ambushed at Brgy. Imelda in Cabanatuan City just as he left the provincial National Irrigation Administration office on Tuesday afternoon.

Ano said based on their record there are four mayors in the narco list that were killed during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“On the narco list I think there were four, but some of these were sensational like the case of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera and Mayor Samsudin Dimaupon of Datu Saudi Ampatuan. These are controversial because there were shootouts,” he said.

Ano encouraged the local government officials to report any threat they received to the Philippine National Police (PNP) or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

“They need to cooperate with the authorities, they should coordinate with PNP and PDEA on what kind of threat they received so that we can help them in analysis because that is case to case basis, if the threat against him is real we will help them,” he said.

“There is a way to prevent (assassination) but what is really needed here is cooperation of the mayors involved. Like what I have said if they will not going to report we cannot help them. Imagine there are 1,300 mayors in the Philippines but... three were killed related to drugs, two personal motive and four were due to political rivalry,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS