Some People Need Killing

by Patricia Evangelista

In the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao, in the south, the mayor and nine of his men were killed in what was reported to be a police shoot-out. The mayor of Ozamiz City in Misamis Occidental was shot dead in an encounter that also killed his wife, his brother, his sister, and eleven others. The mayor of Ronda was murdered as he slept inside his office in the town hall, just seven months after his vice-mayor was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. The mayor of Albuera was placed in police custody after allegedly being found with high-powered firearms and eleven kilos of crystal meth. He was killed inside his jail cell by cops who said they shot him in self-defense. In Tanauan City, an unknown sniper’s bullet killed the seventy-two-year-old mayor as he stood singing the national anthem just outside the city hall. He too had been called a narco politician and had been stripped of supervisory powers over the police.