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House Committee on Dangerous Drugs Chairman Surigao del Norte 1st district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers says the death penalty "could be a deterrent" against the entry of huge hauls of illegal drugs in the country.

"I guess it could be a deterrent, death penalty could be a deterrent," Barbers told ANC Headstart in an interview Monday, Oct. 2.

According to the veteran solon, he has been pursuing the reimposition of death penalty or capital punishment in the Philippines since the 11th Congress, albeit "only for drug cases".

The death penalty was abolished in 2006 during the time of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Incidentally, reports of huge confiscations of illegal drugs such as "shabu" have recently grabbed headlines.

"That’s why there is really a need to study the revival of the death penalty proposal so that if we really want to address the problem of illegal drugs, I guess this is one tool, one instrument that can deter the syndicates from trying to bring in all these illegal drugs into the country," Barbers said.

On Sept. 28, authorities announced that they seized 530 kilos of "shabu"--also known as poor man's cocaine--in a warehouse in Mexico town, Pampanga.

Late last month, police reportedly recovered 200 kilos of shabu in a vehicle abandoned in the parking lot of a supermarket in Barangay Mabiga, City of Mabalacat, also in Pampanga.

At any rate, Barbers said the anti-illegal drug effort shouldn't end with pursuit of death penalty revival.

"But of course [a] major, major reform we should do is to reform the law enforcers unit in trying to, maybe, include perhaps moral seminars or morality seminars among all these people.

"Because they should understand that a single gram or an ounce of a drug, once it gets in, it can probably kill someone or probably make someone commit a crime," he said.

The death penalty was last carried out in the country via lethal injection.