Lawmaker backs Duterte’s anti-crime drive

MANILA, Philippines – Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza expressed full support for president-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s strong anti-crime stance, but cautioned members of the incoming 17th Congress against a “mad rush” to reinstate the death penalty, one of Duterte’s priorities.

“We want our new president to succeed in the war on crime. He deserves everybody’s help in rooting out corruption in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the judiciary and corrections,” Atienza said in a statement. 

But Atienza warned that restoring the death penalty would not curb rampant crime. 

“That killing convicts will somehow lessen crime is a false premise. On the contrary, executions will only engender a culture of violence that will in turn breed even more brutal crimes,” he explained.

He maintained that the certainty of swift capture and punishment of felons is the best deterrent to crime. 

In a conference last week with leaders of the House of Representatives from political parties, Duterte expressed his desire for Congress to pass by year’s end a new law restoring the death penalty for drug offenses and other grave crimes. The death penalty is preferably by hanging.

But Atienza said most of the civilized world has recognized the maximum sentence of life imprisonment is more than adequate to serve the ends of justice, and to keep modern societies safe from hardened convicts.

 “In the years ahead, we envision a highly progressive and humane republic firmly grounded on a culture of life – on respect for the sanctity of human life. We are not dreaming of a backward and callous nation anchored on a medieval culture of death,” he added. 

Atienza noted that 102 countries have already eliminated the death penalty from their criminal laws, while another 38 countries have not carried out any executions in the last 10 years, even if the extreme punishment is still in their statutes. 

“Our peace and order campaign has long been beset by corruption, if not by ineptitude. We have to address this problem to restore public confidence in our criminal justice system. Reviving the death penalty is not the solution,” he added.

But elected Pangasinan fifth district Rep. Amado Espino Jr. said the re-imposition of death penalty should be supported because it would discourage the commission of crimes.

Espino also said he would support Duterte’s plan to impose curfew on minors and to ban drinking of liquor in public areas because these would also prevent crimes and set a good example to the youth.

Duterte last week slammed the alleged complicity of at least three unnamed police generals in the illegal narcotics trade. He openly told them to voluntarily resign from their posts or risk public humiliation.

In a previous news conference, Duterte also assailed the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then secretary and now senator-elect Leila de Lima for the delayed raids on the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

He said the DOJ had been tipped off a long time ago about the clandestine shabu laboratories run by high-living convicted drug lords inside the national penitentiary. - With Cesar Ramirez