Duterte cites need to reimpose death penalty

February 10, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday that death penalty is a deterrent to the commission of heinous crimes.

To prove his claim, Duterte cited a data of the  Bureau of Corrections that prior to the abolition of death penalty in 2006, there were 189 inmates inside the New Bilibid Prison convicted of heinous crimes.

But "after the death penalty was revoked, this figure rose to 6,200 inmates or 3,280 percent increase," Duterte said quoting BuCor Director General Benjamin delos Santos.

In citing the data, Duterte did not mention the period as to when the heinous crimes were committed.

The president said capital punishment did not become effective in deterring crime as claimed by anti-death penalty because "I was not the president."

"Now that I am the president, bring it back, I will make them (criminals) as curtain," he said.

Duterte has been pushing for the revival of death penalty through hanging.

Proposal to revive capital punishment are being tackled at the House of Representatives and the Senate. Celerina Monte/DMS