President Duterte is making a fresh pitch for the reimposition of death penalty for heinous crimes in the country.
The President, who launched a bloody war on drugs, said he was in favor of the "restoration" of capital punishment especially against those convicted of crimes committed against innocent people.
"I have always been for the restoration of death penalty," Duterte said during an interview with religious leader Apollo Quiboloy Tuesday, June 8.
"Ako basta heinous crime, drugs, tapos yung nangyayaring sabi mo yung atrocities committed against so many innocent persons, 'yung bata dyan sa Makati na kinatay, pinako sa kawayan, yan ang hindi maintindihan ng human rights (I'm in favor as long as it's a heinous crime, drugs, the atrocities committed against so many innocent persons, the kid who was killed in Makati, nailed to a bamboo, that's what the human rights groups do not understand)," he added.
Duterte, in his remarks, claimed that the death penalty was "not abrogated" but merely "suspended." "Sinuspend lang 'yung the act of killing a criminal," he said.
He said some groups were opposed to death penalty and insisted the suspect should instead be prosecuted and sent to jail. But he claimed that some crime suspects who land in jail still manage to wrestle a gun from a cop and kill the law enforcer.
In his State of the Nation Address last year, the President called for the passage of a law reviving capital punishment by lethal injection. He said death penalty could be applied for crimes specified under the country's anti-drug law.
“This law will not only help us deter criminality, but also save our children from the dangers posed by the illegal and dangerous drugs,” he said in his annual speech before Congress last year.
The two houses of Congress have yet to pass the President's priority bill.
In 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law abolishing death penalty in the predominantly Catholic country. The measure, widely opposed by Catholic Church leaders, was earlier restored for crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping back in 1993.