Duterte says he’s OK with P50 million as threshold for plunder with death sentence

July 15, 2019

President Rodrigo Duterte wants to maintain the P50 million threshold for plunder case, which he proposed to be one of the two heinous crimes to be meted out with the death penalty.

In a speech in Ilocos Sur, Duterte disclosed that it was Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, his former close aide, who suggested to him to have the death penalty for convicted plunderer.

"Bong wants plunder...death penalty for plunder and drugs. I am for it. If you are not a plunderer, if you do not have the money in the bank, why should you be afraid? I think 50 million (pesos) is right for plunder," he said.

He said P10 million threshold is too low for a plunder case.

Republic Act No. 7080, otherwise known as "An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder," provides that any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinate or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts in the aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million shall be guilty of the crime of plunder and shall be punished by reclusion perpetua to death. 

Duterte also said he did not want a firing squad as a method of implementing capital punishment.

"My take is I don't want to waste bullets. One bullet of M16 is expensive, perhaps 70 pesos," he said.

Instead, Duterte said he wants a convicted plunderer to be meted out with death using rope, adding in jest, that it should be a rope made in La Union.

During his fourth State of the Nation Address, Duterte asked Congress to revive the imposition of capital punishment for illegal drugs and plunder cases. Celerina Monte/DMS