ZAMBOANGA CITY- Police are looking at politics as a possible motive in the fatal ambush of the vice mayor of Sapa-Sapa town in Tawi-Tawi.

Vice Mayor Al-Rashid Mohammad Ali was on board his vehicle when he was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Zamboanga City on Wednesday.

• Tawi-Tawi town vice mayor shot dead

Zamboanga City Police officer-in-charge Senior Supt. Allan Nazarro said politics is a possible motive given that the slain vice mayor was being "groomed" to replace his father as the town mayor.

"Sa political side, [siya ay] vice mayor. Ang tatay niya is mayor of that municipality and last termer father niya. He (vice mayor) is [being] groomed na tatakbo as mayor [in the] next elections," Nazarro said.

(He is the vice mayor and his father, who is in his last term, is the mayor of that municipality. Ali is being groomed to run as mayor in the next elections.)

Aside from politics, police are also looking at the possibility that the killing of Ali is related to the murder of the municipal treasurer in Tawi-Tawi last April.

Police, meanwhile, clarified that they have not received any information linking the slain official to narcotics.

The attack on Ali took brought to 16 the number of mayors and vice mayors killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016, according to media reports. Many of those killed were linked to illegal drugs.

On Thursday morning, the remains of Ali were brought by his family from Zamboanga City to his hometown via a chartered flight.

He is the seventh victim of a shooting incident in Zamboanga City this month.

Police on Thursday held an emergency conference to discuss possible counter-measures amid the series of shooting incidents in the city.