The assassination of two provincial mayors in two days has raised fresh fears that law and order in the Philippines—already in a fragile state as the result of a bloody war on drugs—is deteriorating further.

On Tuesday, motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed Mayor Ferdinand Bote in his car after he left a meeting in Cabanatuan City, about 100 miles north of Manila. The morning before, a suspected sniper shot Mayor Antonio Halili in the chest as he sung the national anthem in front of Tanauan City Hall in Batangas, about 40 miles south of the capital.

Their deaths have brought to at least 10 the number of mayors who have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016.

Read more