President Rodrigo Duterte has singled out some local officials, policemen and judges as part of the drug trade in a crackdown that has made him popular with many Filipinos
Among those Duterte named was Reynaldo Parojinog, mayor of Ozamiz city, who was killed along with 11 others in a dawn raid on his home, police said.
“Police were serving a search warrant when the security guards of the mayor fired at them so our policemen retaliated,” police regional spokesman Superintendent Lemuel Gonda told AFP.
Officers recovered grenades, ammunition as well as illegal drugs in the raid, according to police provincial chief Jaysen De Guzman.
In a speech last year, Duterte said Parojinog was among mayors involved in the illegal drug trade.
Police said Sunday they had conducted surveillance on Parojinog based on the president’s remarks.
“He has many security personnel who carry unlicensed firearms,” regional police chief Timoteo Pacleb told a radio station.
Two other mayors Duterte mentioned in his drug list were killed last year.
In November, Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town, was killed during a night-time raid in a provincial jail.
Duterte had defended the officers involved in the raid and ordered their reinstatement.
In October, Samsudin Dimaukom, the mayor of the southern town of Saudi Ampatuan, was killed in a shoot-out in a police checkpoint on suspicion he and his security personnel were transporting illegal drugs, authorities said.