TOKYO – President Duterte made a fresh pitch for the return of the death penalty as he faced the Filipino community in Japan, and brushed aside criticism that it had not served as a deterrent to crime when it was prevailing in the Philippines.
Critics of the return of the death penalty don’t understand, Mr. Duterte said. With him as President, it would work, he said.
“[They ask] why I want to bring it back. Fool… I was not the President at that time. If I had been the President at that time, we wouldn’t be talking about this thing now,” he said.
On comments that there are many criminals in jail, he commented: “Eh di mag-ihaw tayo (Then let’s get roasting).”
The return of the death penalty is one of the measures he had pushed for shortly after coming into power as President.
Speaking of his abhorrence of crime, Mr. Duterte said he could not accept it that criminals would just take away what Filipinos had worked so hard to attain.
He also castigated against illegal drug manufacturers and pushers, who sell illegal substances that destroy children’s lives.
His campaign against illegal drugs has been the centerpiece program of his administration, but it has been heavily criticized because it has given rise to the extrajudicial killing of thousands of drug suspects.
In his speech in Tokyo, Mr. Duterte also justified his anti-drug war, saying the Philippines has nearly 4 million addicts and is in the grip of drug lords.
“We are already into the narcopolitics,” he said.
He said almost all of the barangay captains were involved in the trade, because it’s easy money. So are members of the police, mayors, governors, and judges.
He also took the chance to take another jab at Sen. Leila de Lima, one of his fiercest critics who, he alleged, was linked to the illegal drug trade in the national penitentiary when she was the Justice Secretary.
“With the election of De Lima, the national portals of narcopolitics have entered the political life,” he said.