MAYOR VOWS TO RID CITY OF PUSHERS, DRUG TRADE

MAASIN CITY -- Mayor Damian Mercado has warned pushers they would suffer
the same fate as those in Davao, where vigilantes have executed drug suspects.

Mercado said he would not hesitate to employ the anti-crime style of Davao
City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, if only to rid his 4-year-old city of illegal
drugs.

"I would do it if only to make the city drug free before I bow out (of
office) in my last term in 2007," Mercado told the Inquirer.

Duterte has become famous for his tough anticrime advocacy and had been
linked to the gangland-style executions of crime suspects in the city. He
has denied having a hand in the vigilante killings.

Mercado said he would not tolerate vigilante killings.

But "like Duterte," he said, "we would tell these people whom we already
identified to stop or to get out of Maasin."

Although, he did not disclose what he would do to those who would not heed
his warning, he said, "they will know."

Mercado said he also told his friends and relatives that they would not
receive special treatment from him if they were involved in drugs.

Mercado, in his inaugural speech last month, said his last term would be
focused on the antidrug campaign. "I want to protect the youths from drugs
because someday somehow they will lead our city."

He suggested to Municipal Trial Court for Cities Judge Ramon Velasco, who
administered the Maasin officials' oath, to impose the maximum penalty so
that those caught engaging in illegal drugs would be jailed for life.