Panelo: Threat to hang cop who aided Sayyaf just hyperbole, drama
June 5, 2017 | 12:40pm
Nobleza and her alleged lover, suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber Reener Lou Dongon, were arrested together in Bohol last April in relation to the terrorist group’s plan to attack the province. File
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel on Monday dismissed as “hyperbole” the president’s statement that he wanted to hang Police Superintendent Maria Cristina Nobleza for aiding the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
Nobleza and her alleged lover, suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber Reener Lou Dongon, were arrested together in Bohol last April in relation to the terrorist group’s plan to attack the province.
Nobleza, a former deputy regional director of a police crime laboratory, was said to have received huge sums from a terrorist group in the Middle East.
Duterte on Saturday said Nobleza should be hanged in public along with other “traitors” in government.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, however, said Duterte just wanted Nobleza to be meted the severest penalty provided by the law.
“I think you know the president as we have known him by this time, he is fond of hyperbole because he wants some drama in some statements to dramatize anything that he says, to get the attention of the people,” Panelo said.
“What he’s saying is that this Nobleza has to be given the severest penalty imposed by law but that is not hanging, definitely not hanging,” he added.
Panelo said the police officer cannot be punished by hanging because it is not a penalty imposed by the Constitution. It is unclear if Nobleza has already been formally charged in court.
Death penalty was scrapped in 1987 but was restored six years later under President Fidel Ramos. It was abolished anew in 2006 under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The Duterte administration has been pushing for the restoration of capital punishment, saying it would serve as retribution to criminals. The House has already approved its version of the death penalty bill.
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