Restore death for drug traffickers, Senate urged
MANILA, Philippines — Restore the death penalty, at least for drug traffickers.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House of Representatives committee on dangerous drugs, made the appeal yesterday to senators, who have been sitting on the House-approved bill reimposing the death penalty.
The House passed the bill on third and final reading in March last year and sent it to the Senate.
Barbers made the appeal at the start of his panel’s fifth hearing on the supposed smuggling of shabu into the country estimated to be worth P6.8 billion last August.
Despite laws prohibiting drug-related crimes and the administration’s war on drugs, he said trafficking of illegal substances continues to flourish.
“We have noticed that despite the fact that we have sufficient laws dealing with these kinds of crimes, it remains a puzzle to this representation why people keep committing them,” he said.
Barbers said death “is the only language these criminals and big-time syndicates understand.”
He added the Senate should not wait for more deaths and for the country to become a nation of drug addicts before deciding to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers.
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