Mayor Antonio Halili: Tanauan City’s ‘Duterte?’

Video by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

Known for his iron-fisted leadership and shame campaign against alleged criminals, the mayor of Tanauan City in Batangas province may well be the Southern Tagalog version of the tough-talking, no-nonsense Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City.

Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili said he initiated his own “shame campaign”   to curb the rise of criminality in the city.

In March 2014, Halili ordered a man to walk in public with a sign saying he stole dried fish from the market.

The man had his hands tied behind his back with a poster in front of his shirt saying “I am a thief.” The man was then forced him to kneel in front of a fish vendor to ask for her forgiveness.

Early this year, another man who allegedly stole P3,000 worth of cable wires was made to walk around the city upon the order of Halili.

READ: Batangas ‘Walk of shame’ mayor provokes outrage

The city mayor said his shame campaign has been “very effective” in reducing criminality in Tanauan City.

“Ipinapasyal ko ang magnanakaw sa palengke para magsilbing aral at mula noon ay nawala na ang nakawan sa palengke sa Tanauan,” he said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990AM.

(I let thieves walk around the market so that will serve as a lesson to them and from then on, there have been no instances of theft in our market in Tanauan.)

Aside from thieves, he said the city government also posts on its official Facebook page pictures of drug pushers and users to warn the public of the said criminals. He said they include in their posts the bad effects of drug addiction to also educate the public.

“Isang deterrent ang paglabas ng larawan ng mga dawit sa katiwalian at katulad ito ng aking pamamahiya sa mga magnanakaw dahil maiisip ng mga pulitiko at kriminal na kapag sila ay gumawa ng hindi maganda ay mapapahiya sila,” he said.

(Posting the pictures of thieves and shaming them are a deterrent measure because unscrupulous politicians and criminals will know that if they do something bad, they will be humiliated.)

Like in the case of Duterte, Human rights advocates led by the Commission on Human Rights have criticized Halili for his shame campaign but the mayor said he was just doing his job.

“Trabaho nila ‘yun eh gawin nila trabaho nila at ako naman sabi ko ako naman eh ginagawa ko din ‘yung trabaho ko. ‘Yung trabaho ko na alam kong makatutulong sa ikatatahimik ng aking bayan eh ‘di ‘yun ang aking ginagawa,” he said.

(They just need to do their job just like I am doing mine. I am only doing my job which is to make sure that my city’s at peace.)

He clarified that those who are subjected to their shame campaign are those who already admitted their guilt.

”’Yung pag-amin nila nirerecord namin, vinivideo namin para kung saka-sakali magtanong bakit mo ipinasyal ‘to eh baka ito inosente papakita ko sakanila ‘yung pag-amin ‘yung video inamin na sila’y ganun talaga ginagawa nila,” he said.

(We record their admissions, so that when people ask why we are letting them do the walk of shame when they could be innocent, we just show them a tape of their admission.)

Learning from Davao

Halili said local government units in the country should learn from Davao City.

“We have so much to learn from Davao,” he said, citing the peace and order in Davao City through the leadership of Duterte.

Duterte has been both famous and infamous for his strong, albeit polarizing, political will and disciplinarian leadership in Davao City.
Halili said he admires Duterte for his kind of leadership, adding that city officials in Tanauan have visited Davao to observe how the city is being run by Duterte.

“Marami kasing pwede matutunan sa Davao at ‘yun naman ay inaapply natin ang ating napulot du’n (We have so much to learn from Davao, and we apply these lessons in our city),” he said.

But he said that even before their visits, they have already been implementing in their city some of the policies in place in Davao City.

“Natutuwa kami sa nakita namin sa Davao; may natutunan kami although ‘yung ginagawa nila du’n ginagawa na rin (naman) namin sa Tanauan,” he said.

(We are happy with what we saw in Davao; we learned a few things, but there are policies that we saw there that we have already been implementing in our city.)

Asked if he would support Duterte if he decides to run for a national position in 2016, Halili said he would “consider” Duterte among those he would support.

He said he supports Duterte’s campaign for federalism to give local government units the autonomy and no longer be controlled by the national government especially in terms of their fund spending. IDL