TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — One of the alleged drug protectors named by President Rodrigo Duterte has long been dead.

Judge Roberto Navidad of Regional Trial Court 32 in Calbayog City, Samar was killed by a lone assailant on Jan. 15, 2008 inside his vehicle after he bought his medicines in Calbayog.

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His family has not attained any justice for his death since the killer remains unidentified and at large.

Eight years later, his relatives were shocked on Sunday when Duterte named Navidad as a drug protector.

“That is a big lie. The reason why he was shot to death was because he fought with the drug lords in Calbayog City,” his nephew, Elias Navidad Acosta, who works as court sheriff at the Regional Trial Court-Branch 7 based in the city, said in a text message.

“He was my uncle. I know him from head to foot. He was not a drug protector. He was a drug eliminator or a drug buster. That is why he was shot dead by these syndicates,” Acosta said.

Acosta is sheriff of RTC Branch 7 in Tacloban where Navidad was presiding judge for 10 years before his transfer to RTC Branch 32 in Calbayog.

He served as judge of the RTC-32 in Calbayog for more than five years before he was killed in 2008.

He was also mayor of MacArthur town in Eastern Samar from 1972 to 1979. He then began his law practice.

In the 2007 elections, Navidad announced his plan to run for vice governor of Eastern Samar but later abandoned the plan.

His family now lives in the United States./rga

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