Duterte renews call to restore death penalty

MANILA, Philippines - Arguing that the death penalty law in the Philippines was ineffective because it was not implemented, President Duterte renewed yesterday his call for Congress to restore the statute.

“Human rights (crusaders) would tell you that we had the death penalty before and nothing happened… it didn’t have its desired effect because the death penalty was not imposed. They executed (convicted child rapist) Leo Echegaray and that’s about it,” Duterte said partly in Filipino.

The President vowed to make full use of capital punishment as soon as it is re-installed in the country.

“Rightly or wrongly, it (criticisms) started with politics because I have always been a hardliner when it comes to penal laws… I hope there’s a change of heart. The people of the Philippines no longer believed in the law because the fear is not there,” Duterte said in his speech during the oath taking of newly elected officers of the Malacañang Press Corps at the Heroes Hall.

He added every president in the country would point at the Catholic church and the “bleeding hearts” when asked about the death penalty.

“Because only God can kill. The problem there is… what if there is no God? So, we allow the criminals… when a one-year-old, 18 months old baby is taken from the mother’s arms, brought under a jeep and raped and killed, where is God? And, in Syria, women and children who do not want to have sex with the ISIS are murdered. So, where is God? My God, where are you,” Duterte lamented.

While saying that he believes in God, he stressed that it would remain as his perpetual question.

“Where were you when we needed you? It is not enough to say at the end of the day, at the end of the world that he shall come to judge the living and dead.”

At the awarding of child-friendly municipalities and signing of the implementing rules and regulations of the Centenarians Act of 2016, the President reiterated his anger towards illegal drugs and their illicit trade in the country.

He told the audience how one of his friends asked for his help to counter illegal drugs after he saw how the vice destroyed one of his sons and was starting to destroy another of his offspring.

The President said a family who has one or several members hooked on illegal drugs would surely become dysfunctional.

He maintained that his standing order to the police is to search and arrest offenders in the country and to use force, when necessary, to defend themselves.

Earlier, he expressed his willingness to invite representatives of the United Nations, European Union, the US and international human rights groups to come to the Philippines and look into the alleged extrajudicial killings.

His war against illegal drugs has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 individuals in the country. Of the number, more than 1,200 were killed in police operations while the rest were killed vigilante style.