Vice mayors will raise security concerns during Palace meeting

Vice Mayor Donnabel Joy Mejia of Magsaysay, Davao del Sur, is national president of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines (Photo from her Facebook page)

TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite — The Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) will discuss concerns over the security of its members in a meeting with Malacañang Palace officials on Monday.

The league’s national president, Vice Mayor Donnabel Joy F. Mejia of Magsaysay, Davao del Sur, said on Sunday that they were invited to Malacañang for a meeting regarding the proposed federal constitution on Monday.

She said she would take this opportunity to raise security concerns of the vice mayors with Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go.

This developed after the killing of Alxander Lubigan, this city’s vice mayor, who was ambushed Saturday.

“We want these killings of elected officials stopped,” Mejia said during her visit at Lubigan’s wake here. “We want to know. We want [this case] resolved.”

Mejia said league members met earlier on Sunday and talked about how to protect themselves.

“I told them that I cannot look after each one of you,” she said. “[So we have to do] individual watch, individual assessment [of security threats].”

She also said that the Lubigan family believed politics was behind the killing of the vice mayor, which happened just a day Lubigan made known his plans to run for mayor in the 2019 midterm elections.

Lubigan was the first vice mayor killed under the Duterte administration, according to Taguig City Vice Mayor Ricardo Cruz, who is the league’s vice president for Luzon.

Lubigan was the third local government executive killed in just a week, after Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas, and Fernado Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija. /atm