PDEA supports Duterte’s call to revive death penalty for drug-related crimes

July 28, 2020

The director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Tuesday expressed full support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the revival of the death penalty to deter illegal drug activities.

“The absence of capital punishment is favorable for drug peddlers who continue their nefarious activities despite being in detention,” Director General Wilkins Villanueva said.

“We have intercepted drug transactions perpetrated by convicted high-profile inmates while inside the national penitentiaries. They have found ways to communicate with the outside world one way or the other, and give direct orders to people involved in the illegal drug trade,” Villanueva added.

Villanueva said the return of the death penalty should depend on certain quantities of confiscated narcotics and execution by lethal injection is for big-time drug traffickers, and not for the street-level pushers.

“I strongly suggest that seized drugs weighing one kilogram or more should be the threshold amount,” he said.

Villanueva believed that foreign and local drug offenders, including drug protectors and coddlers who were found guilty of manufacturing, trafficking, and pushing of dangerous drugs, warrant the capital punishment.

“Tougher penalties will send a clear message and force them to have second thoughts before smuggling and trafficking illegal drugs. They have the luxury to operate in our country without worry because the maximum penalty on our laws is less harsh,” he said.

During his 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA),  President Rodrigo Duterte reiterates the swift passage of a law reinstating the death penalty by lethal injection for crimes under Republic Act 9165, or “The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002”.

“The death penalty will deter people to be involved in illegal drug trade. It should also save our future generations from the dangers posed by dangerous drugs,” Villanueva said. Ella Dionisio/DMS