Zamboanga: Philippine police fatally shot a city mayor, who was among politicians the president publicly linked to illegal drugs, and six others in a gunbattle that erupted Sunday when they reportedly resisted arrest, officials said.
Officers were to serve warrants for the arrest of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr, his daughter, who is the vice mayor, and four other officials of Ozamiz city when they allegedly opened fire.
Parojinog, who also faced corruption charges, had denied any links to illegal drugs. He was the third mayor to be killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody crackdown on drugs, which left more than 3,000 dead in reported gunfights with police and has been widely criticized by Western governments and human rights groups.
The officers were "met with volleys of fire from (the mayor's) security, prompting the Philippine National Police personnel to retaliate," Chief Superintendent Timoteo Pacleb said in a statement. He said that Parojinog and six relatives and bodyguards died in his farm house. The mayor's wife was reportedly among the dead.
Parojinog's daughter, Vice Mayor Nova Echaves, was arrested, Pacleb said.
Last year, police officers shot dead Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. inside a jail cell in the central province of Leyte, and a week before that, another mayor and his nine bodyguards were gunned down allegedly during a firefight on a road in the southern Philippines.
All three mayors were among more than 160 officials Duterte named publicly as being linked to illegal drugs in August last year as part of a shame campaign.
Duterte has vowed not to stop until, he said, the last drug trafficker in the country has been eliminated.
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