PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, September 17, said he was behind the attempt on the life of former Daanbantayan, Cebu mayor Vicente Loot.

Duterte made the revelation in a speech during the mass oath-taking of new presidential appointees at Palace's Rizal Hall.

"General Loot, p***** i** mo, nanalo pa ng mayor. In-ambush kitang animal ka, nabuhay pa rin (General Loot, you son of a b****, you even won as a mayor. I ambushed you, yet you're still alive)," the President said in his speech.

Loot won as Daanbantayan mayor in 2016 elections. In last May's midterm polls, his stepson, Sun Shimura, was elected mayor of the town in Cebu.

Loot, who has been repeatedly mentioned in Duterte's profanity-laced speeches, was tagged by the President in 2016 as one of the five police generals who are allegedly "drug protectors."

The former Daanbantayan mayor had already denied Duterte's allegation.

On May 13, 2018, Loot and his family survived an ambush by unidentified men at a wharf in Daanbantayan, Cebu.

About seven months later, in December 2018, Duterte claimed that former Local Government Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II ordered the failed attempt to kill Loot.

But Malacañang had clarified that the Chief Executive was merely joking when he tagged Roxas in the ambush of Loot. (SunStar Philippines)