Why remove rape, plunder from death penalty bill?, Duterte asks

March 4, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte questioned the removal of the rape and plunder cases from the death penalty bill which was approved on second reading at the House of Representatives.

“I really would like to know the rationale of the congress why is it that rape was taken out and plunder,” he said in an ambush interview on Friday in Cagayan de Oro.

He said rape is a “gross violation of the dignity of a woman.”

“I don’t know why they took out. Actually I just heard it earlier. I leave to the wisdom of the congressmen because they are the representative of the people,” Duterte said.

Congressmen passed the bill by voice vote on Ash Wednesday, March 1.

“Since this is a republican form of government we can't all be in Congress at one time to shout. So we elect representatives to represent us. That's why congressional district one, two, That is republican setup. So if it passes Congress, by theory of government it is the will of the people, we cannot do anything about that,” he added.

On the removal of plunder, Duterte explained he have promised to end corruption and not to kill plunderers.

“I said I’d stop corruption, I didn’t say I’m going to kill the plunderers. It was not, what was in my mind was that corruption will stop and it will be stop,” he said.

He said “in the coming days I’m going to fire additional people whom I have appointed in government.”

“There are a lot of them, I’m still trying to figure out how it was done but as I have told this my warning to those who work in government, even if you are a director or a civil service eligible, I told you to stop at least for six year while im in office,” Duterte added.

Duterte said it is important to restore the death penalty to renew people’s respect for the rule of law.

“In the Philippines the respect for the law has lost, the fear of people to law has gone that is why everybody has into it. Now here comes an argument that nothing has happened in death penalty before because no president said that he will implement the death penalty, now in my term if you will be sentence by death penalty, I will hang you like curtain in Fort Bonifacio,” he said.

The death penalty was scrapped in 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Robina Asido/DMS