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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Who needs the death penalty when vigilantes can do a better job in deterring crime?
While claiming that he is not pro-vigilante, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said Tuesday vigilantism has some benefits.
“Mas maayo pa ang mga vigilantes, patay tanan (Vigilantes are better — all criminals end up dead),” Osmeña said in jest.
Osmeña made the comment on the heels of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri's press statement calling for the revival of the death penalty to address the increasing criminal rate and brutal killings in the country.
Osmeña said the purpose of the death penalty is to serve as a deterrent.
It takes at least 20 years for a convicted criminal to be meted the death penalty, said the mayor, who remarked that this situation does not serve the purpose of eliminating or at least to lessen the number of criminals.
“Criminals are more scared of the vigilantes than the death penalty because they would rather stay in prison than go outside the community and risk getting killed by a vigilante. That's what you call deterrent," Osmeña said.
The Cebu City police officials supported Senator Zubiri's calls to re-implement the death penalty law.
Senior Inspector Mario Monilar, chief of the homicide section of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that restoring the death law could deter crimes.
Monilar's statement was echoed by Senior Inspector George Ylanan, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the CCPO.
“That would have a very big impact if it would push through,” Ylanan said in Cebuano.
According to Monilar, when the death penalty was abolished, crimes in the city dramatically increased.
“Mao nay hinungdan nga di malikayan nga naay mokumkom sa balaod sa side sa mga biktima (That is the reason why some people would rather put the law into their hands for the victims),” Monilar said.
Since late 2004, several suspected criminals were killed by still unidentified men.
Zubiri planned to pass a resolution in the Senate to restore the death penalty law in response to the bank heist in Cabuyao, Laguna where nine persons were killed.
