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President Duterte
reaffirms vow to suppress drugs at all cost.
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We sincerely pray for
peace in in our country. We hope that there will still come a day when both
parties will sit and talk peace and stop the bloodshed.
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Who do you want
to die? Duterte offers choice
ABS-CBN News
Posted at Mar 13
2017 06:00 PM
MANILA - Who
do you want to die?
President
Rodrigo Duterte on Monday took a swipe at critics of the death penalty, and
asked whether the lives of criminals are worth saving more than those of
innocent Filipinos.
In a media
briefing in Malacañang, the President said saving the life of a criminal is
like risking the lives of innocent people.
“We
are so busy protecting criminals we never had any even a moment to ponder or
pray for the souls of the innocents who are victims of crime,”
he said.
Duterte said,
although there is a belief that the death penalty should not be imposed so that
criminals will have a chance to change, the concept of retribution must apply
and that “the law must apply to all.”
“What’s
the purpose of criminal law? It’s retribution. Magbayad ka sa utang mo sa
society (Pay your dues),” he said.
The President
said “heinous crimes are everywhere today,” and that the prayer is for the
death penalty to serve as a deterrent.
Duterte cited
a Bureau of Corrections report which says the crime rate rose when the death
penalty was abolished.
He said, in
2006, the number of inmates convicted of heinous crimes rose to 6,204 from 189
after the death penalty was abolished.
He gave
Filipinos a choice on who they would choose to die: innocent ones or criminals.
“Sino ang
gusto mo mamatay, ang inosente o yung mga criminal na may atraso na? Mamili ka,
sino ang gusto mo makita mamatay? Anak mo na galing sa eskwelehan maholdap,
masaksak o yung mga criminal na andiyan?” he said.
(Who
do you want to die, the innocent one or the criminals who have committed
misdeeds? Choose who you want to die, your child who goes home from school and
gets robbed and stabbed or the criminals there?)
He also told
critics of the death penalty not to make life the “pinnacle” of their virtues.
“Life
is sacred but do not make it as a pinnacle of your virtues,”
he said.
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Rodrigo Duterte’s warning to criminals.
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://au.pinterest.com/pin/556124253968254569/]
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Death penalty
in the country was abolished under the 1987 Constitution--the first Asian
country to do so--but was reinstated under President Fidel V. Ramos in 1993 in
response to increasing crime rates.
It was again
abolished under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006, reducing the
harshest penalties to life imprisonment.
Even before
being elected in the 2016 polls, Duterte had been pushing for the revival of
death penalty, saying it would serve as retribution for those who committed
heinous crimes.
Last week,
the House of Representatives approved
on third and final reading a bill reimposing the death penalty for drug-related
offenses, in a bid to bolster the Duterte administration's anti-narcotics
drive.
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