Two days ago Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City was felled by a sharpshooter’s bullet from approximately a hundred meters away.  The assassination occurred during a flag raising ceremony at city hall.  The shooter positioned himself across the parking lot and established a hasty hide site in the tall grass.  The grass was bent over and a loophole fashioned from which to fire through.  Such a shot was the work of a trained marksman, but certainly would not require the talents of a school trained sniper.

A single gunshot cracked during the ceremony.  Mayor Halili clutched his chest, walked, a few steps, and collapsed as the crowd began to panic.  The unedited video shot by an observer of the ceremony can be seen below.  The following footage contains graphic content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qDQxTQBgQ0&feature=youtu.be

Several pictures of the hide site have also become public in the hours after the killing.

The shooter aimed center mass and the mayor was declared dead at Reyes Memorial Hospital within an hour of the incident.  The shooter likely exfiltrated through the bushes backing up towards a main road where someone picked him up or he had a vehicle waiting for him.

Today, another mayor in the Philippines was assassinated by a gunmen.  Mayor Ferdinand Bote was killed in his town of General Tinio, right next door to Fort Magsaysay, which is the Philippines’ version of Fort Bragg.  CCTV footage of this latest assassination appears to have emerged on social media and can be seen here.  The alleged gunmen is reported to have approached the mayor’s SUV on a motorbike, and fired on him with a pistol before riding away.

The Philippines National Police (PNP) has established a task force to begin investigating both murders.  The motive for them, or whether or not they are connected to one another, remains unknown at this time.

Lead image: In this handout photo provided by the Tanuan City Information Office, Tanauan city Mayor Antonio Halili, third from right, attends a flag raising ceremony minutes before he was shot outside the municipal hall in Batangas province, south of Manila on Monday, July 2, 2018. Halili, known for parading drug suspects in public but also alleged to have drug ties himself was shot and killed by a sniper Monday in a brazen attack during a flag-raising ceremony in front of hundreds of horrified employees and village leaders. (Tanuan City Information Office via AP)