A Philippine mayor accused of involvement in narcotics trafficking survived an ambush on Sunday, police said, four months after President Rodrigo Duterte publicly threatened to kill him. Vicente Loot, a former police general who was named by Duterte as a protector of drug rings, together with his wife, Malou Loot, and other family members had just arrived from Malapascua Island and were disembarking from a pump boat when 5 armed
men fired at them. Loot said the allegations against him were rooted in politics, saying that questions over his wealth and properties had long been raised by critics back when his wife was mayor of Daanbantayan town in northern Cebu.