Mayor Antonio Halili of the small city of Tanauan in the Philippines was gunned down in the middle of a crowd on Monday morning. Although Halili was known for the controversial practice of parading drug suspects in public as part of President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs, he was also suspected of having trafficking ties himself.

Halili was killed by a shot to the chest. As onlookers did not see a gunman, nor did footage of the event capture one, suspicion has begun to circulate that the mayor was killed by a trained sniper.

The mayor had always presented himself as an anti-drug hard-liner like Duterte, and was even praised by the president as the leader of "one of the most progressive towns" in the province of Batangas.

'Another case of extra-judicial killing'

However, in 2017 he also appeared on one of Manila's "narco-lists" of public officials suspected of drug ties. He was subsequently stripped of his right to control the town's police force.

"This is clearly another case of extra-judicial killing resulting from the so-called drug war launched by the government," said Senator Francis Pangilinan, who heads the opposition Liberal Party.

The government has said that about 4,200 people have been killed as part of its crackdown on the drug trade, but rights groups claim that the number is at least three times higher due to the tolerance of vigilante killings.

es/msh (AFP, AP)